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MY   DEAR   CECIL,      SHE    SAID    EARNESTLY,  "  PLEASE   DON'T  MAKE 

LOVE   TO   ME." 

[Page  141 


_ 


JEANNE 
OF  THE  MARSHES 


By  E.  PHILLIPS  OPPENHEIM 


Author  of  "The  Missioner,"  "A  Prince  of  Sinners,' 
"The  Master  Mummer,"  "The  Betrayal,"  etc. 


.With  Four  Illustrations 
By  C.  E.  BROCK 


A.  L.  BURT  COMPANY 
Publishers  New  York 


Copyright,  1008,  1009, 
By  Little,  Bkown,  and  Company. 


All  rights  reserved. 


Published,  October,  1909 


5\\5 

Jeanne    ,^ 
of  the  Marshes 


BOOK    I 
CHAPTER    I 

The  Princess  opened  her  eyes  at  the  sound  of 
her  maid's  approach.  She  turned  her  head  impa- 
tiently toward  the  door. 

"  Annette,"  she  said  coldly,  "  did  you  misunder- 
stand me  ?  Did  I  not  say  that  I  was  on  no  account 
to  be  disturbed  this  afternoon?  " 

Annette  was  the  picture  of  despair.  Eyebrows 
and  hands  betrayed  alike  both  her  agitation  of 
mind  and  her  nationality. 

"  Madame,"  she  said,  "  did  I  not  say  so  to  mon- 
sieur? I  begged  him  to  call  again.  T  told  him  that 
madame  was  lying  down  with  a  bad  headache,  and 
that  it  was  as  much  as  my  place  was  worth  to 
disturb  her.  What  did  he  answer?  Only  this. 
That  it  would  be  as  much  as  my  place  was  worth 
if  I  did  not  come  up  and  tell  you  that  he  was  here 


2  JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

to  see  you  on  a  very  urgent  matter.  Indeed,  ma- 
dame,  he  was  very,  very  impatient  with  me." 

"Of  whom  are  you  talking?'  the  Princess 
asked. 

"  But  of  Major  Forrest,  madame,"  Annette  de- 
clared.   "  It  is  he  who  waits  below." 

The  Princess  closed  her  eyes  for  a  moment  and 
then  slowly  opened  them.  She  stretched  out  her 
hand,  and  from  a  table  by  her  side  took  up  a  small 
gilt  mirror. 

"  Turn  on  the  lights,  Annette,"  she  commanded. 

The  maid  illuminated  the  darkened  room.  The 
Princess  gazed  at  herself  in  the  mirror,  and  reach- 
ing out  again  took  a  small  powder-puff  from  its 
case  and  gently  dabbed  her  face.  Then  she  laid 
both  mirror  and  powder-puff  back  in  their 
places. 

"  You  will  tell  monsieur,"  she  said,  "  that  I  am 
very  unwell  indeed,  but  that  since  he  is  here  and 
his  business  is  urgent  I  will  see  him.  Turn  out  the 
lights,  Annette.  I  am  not  fit  to  be  seen.  And 
move  my  couch  a  little,  so." 

"  Madame  is  only  a  little  pale,"  the  maid  said 
reassuringly.  "  That  makes  nothing.  These  Eng- 
lishwomen have  all  too  much  colour.  I  go  to  tell 
monsieur." 

She  disappeared,  and  the  Princess  lay  still  upon 
her  couch,  thinking.     Soon  she  heard  steps  outside, 


JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES        3 

and  with  a  little  sigh  she  turned  her  head  toward 
the  door.  The  man  who  entered  was  tall,  and  of 
the  ordinary  type  of  well-born  Englishmen.  He 
was  carefully  dressed,  and  his  somewhat  scanty 
hair  was  arranged  to  the  best  advantage.  His 
features  were  hard  and  lifeless.  His  eyes  were 
just  a  shade  too  close  together.  The  maid  ushered 
him  in  and  withdrew  at  once. 

"  Come  and  sit  by  my  side,  Nigel,  if  you  want 
to  talk  to  me,"  the  Princess  said.  "  Walk  softly, 
please.     I  really  have  a  headache." 

"  No  wonder,  in  this  close  room,"  the  man  mut- 
tered, a  little  ungraciously.  "  It  smells  as  though 
you  had  been  burning  incense  here." 

'  It  suits  me,"   the   Princess   answered   calmly, 
'  and  it  happens  to  be  my  room.     Bring  that  chair 
up  here  and  say  what  you  have  to  say." 

The  man  obeyed  in  silence.  When  he  had  made 
himself  quite  comfortable,  he  raised  her  hand,  the 
one  which  was  nearest  to  him,  to  his  lips,  and 
afterwards  retained  it  in  his  own. 

'  Forgive  me  if  I  seem  unsympathetic,  Ena,"  he 
said.  '  The  fact  is,  everything  has  been  getting 
on  my  nerves  for  the  last  few  days,  and  my  luck 
seems  dead  out." 

She  looked  at  him  curiously.  She  was  past  mid- 
dle age,  and  her  face  showed  signs  of  the  wear  and 
tear  of  life.    But  she  still  had  fine  eyes,  and  the  re- 


4  JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

juvenating  arts  of  Bond  Street  had  done  their  best 
for  her. 

"What  is  the  matter,  Nigel?"  she  asked. 
"  Have  the  cards  been  going  against  you?  " 

He  frowned  and  hesitated  for  a  moment  before 
replying. 

"  Ena,"  he  said,  "  between  us  two  there  is  an 
ancient  bargain,  and  that  is  that  we  should  tell 
the  truth  to  one  another.  I  will  tell  you  what  it  is 
that  is  worrying  me  most.  I  have  suspected  it  for 
some  time,  but  this  afternoon  it  was  absolutely 
obvious.  There  is  a  sort  of  feeling  at  the  club.  I 
can't  exactly  describe  it,  but  I  am  conscious  of  it 
directly  I  come  into  the  room.  For  several  days 
I  have  scarcely  been  able  to  get  a  rubber.  This 
afternoon,  when  I  cut  in  with  Harewood  and  Mild- 
may  and  another  fellow,  two  of  them  made  some 
sort  of  an  excuse  and  went  off.  I  pretended  not  to 
notice  it,  of  course,  but  there  it  was.  The  thing 
was  apparent,  and  it  is  the  very  devil !  " 

Again  she  looked  at  him  closely. 

"  There  is  nothing  tangible?  "  she  asked.  "  No 
complaint,  or  scandal,  or  anything  of  that  sort?  " 

He  rejected  the  suggestion  with  scorn. 

"  No!  "  he  said.  "  I  am  not  such  an  idiot  as 
that.  All  the  same  there  is  the  feeling.  They 
don't  care  to  play  bridge  with  me.  There  is  only 
young  Engleton  who  takes  my  part,  and  so  far  as 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES        5 

playing  bridge  for  money  is  concerned,  he  would 
be  worth  the  whole  lot  put  together  if  only  I  could 
get  him  away  from  them  —  make  up  a  little  party 
somewhere,  and  have  him  to  myself  for  a  week  or 
two." 

The  Princess  was  thoughtful. 

"  To  go  abroad  at  this  time  of  the  year,"  she 
remarked,  "  is  almost  impossible.  Besides,  you 
have  only  just  come  back." 

"  Absolutely  impossible,"  he  answered.  "  Be- 
sides, I  shouldn't  care  to  do  it  just  now.  It  looks 
like  running  away.  A  week  or  so  ago  you  were 
talking  of  taking  a  villa  down  the  river.  I  won- 
dered whether  you  had  thought  any  more  of  it." 

The  Princess  shook  her  head. 
'  I  dare  not,"  she  answered.  "  I  have  gone 
already  further  than  I  meant  to.  This  house  and 
the  servants  and  carriages  are  costing  me  a  small 
fortune.  I  dare  not  even  look  at  my  bills.  An- 
other house  is  not  to  be  thought  of." 

Major  Forrest  looked  gloomily  at  the  shining 
tip  of  his  patent  boot. 

"  It's  jolly  hard  luck,"  he  muttered.  "  A  quiet 
place  somewhere  in  the  country,  with  Engleton  and 
you  and  myself,  and  another  one  or  two,  and  I 
should  be  able  to  pull  through.  As  it  is,  I  feel 
inclined  to  chuck  it  all." 

The  Princess  looked  at  him  curiously.     He  was- 


6  JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

certainly  more  than  ordinarily  pale,  and  the  hand 
which  rested  upon  the  side  of  his  chair  was  twitch- 
ing a  little  nervously. 

"  My  dear  Nigel,"  she  said,  "  do  go  to  the 
chiffonier  there  and  help  yourself  to  a  drink.  I 
hate  to  see  you  white  to  the  lips,  and  trembling  as 
though  death  itself  were  at  your  elbow.  Bor- 
row a  little  false  courage,  if  you  lack  the  real 
thing." 

The  man  obeyed  her  suggestion  with  scarcely  a 
protest. 

"  I  had  hoped,  Ena,"  he  remarked  a  little  peev- 
ishly, "  to  have  found  you  more  sympathetic." 

"  You  are  so  sorry  for  yourself,"  she  answered, 
"  that  you  seem  scarcely  to  need  my  sympathy. 
However,  sit  down  and  talk  to  me  reasonably." 

"  I  talk  reasonably  enough,"  he  answered,  "  but 
I  really  am  hard  up  against  it.  Don't  think  I  have 
come  begging.  I  know  you've  done  all  you  can, 
and  it's  a  matter  with  me  now  of  more  than  a  few 
hundreds.  My  only  hope  is  Engleton.  Can't  you 
suggest  anything?  " 

The  Princess  rested  her  head  slightly  upon  the 
long  slender  fingers  of  her  right  hand.  Bond 
Street  had  taken  care  of  her  complexion,  but  the 
veins  in  her  hand  were  blue,  and  art  had  no  means 
of  concealing  a  certain  sharpness  of  features  and 
the  thin  lines  about  the  eyes,  nameless  suggestions 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES        7 

of  middle  age.  Yet  she  was  still  a  handsome 
woman.  She  knew  how  to  dress,  and  how  to  make 
the  best  of  herself.  She  had  the  foreigner's  instinct 
for  clothes,  and  her  figure  was  still  irreproachable. 
She  sat  and  looked  with  a  sort  of  calculating  inter- 
est at  the  man  who  for  years  had  come  as  near 
touching  her  heart  as  any  of  his  sex.  Curiously 
enough  she  knew  that  this  new  aspect  in  which  he 
now  presented  himself,  this  incipient  cowardice  — 
the  first-fruits  of  weakening  nerves  —  did  not  and 
could  not  affect  her  feelings  for  him.  She  saw  him 
now  almost  for  the  first  time  with  the  mask 
dropped,  no  longer  cold,  cynical  and  calculating, 
but  a  man  moved  to  his  shallow  depths  by  what 
might  well  seem  to  him,  a  dweller  in  the  narrow 
ways  of  life,  as  a  tragedy.  It  looked  at  her  out  of 
his  grey  eyes.  It  showed  itself  in  the  twitching  of 
his  lips.  For  many  years  he  had  lived  upon  a  little 
less  than  nothing  a  year.  Now  for  the  first  time 
his  means  of  livelihood  were  threatened.  His 
long-suffering  acquaintances  had  left  him  alone  at 
the  card-table. 

"  You  disappoint  me,  Nigel,"  she  said.  "  I  hate 
to  see  a  man  weaken.  There  is  nothing  against 
you.  Don't  act  as  though  there  could  be.  As  to 
this  little  house-party  you  were  speaking  of,  I  only 
wish  I  could  think  of  something  to  help  you.  By 
the  by,  what  are  you  doing  to-night?  ' 


S  JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

"  Nothing,"  he  answered,  "  except  that  Engle- 
ton  is  expecting  me  to  dine  with  him." 

"  I  have  an  idea,"  the  Princess  said  slowly.  "  It 
may  not  come  to  anything,  but  it  is  worth  trying. 
Have  you  met  my  new  admirer,  Mr.  Cecil  de  la 
Borne?" 

Forrest  shook  his  head. 

"  Do  you  mean  a  dandified-looking  boy  whom 
you  were  driving  with  in  the  Park  yesterday?  ' 

The  Princess  nodded. 

"  We  met  him  a  week  or  so  ago,"  she  answered, 
"  and  he  has  been  very  attentive.  He  has  a  coun- 
try place  down  in  Norfolk,  which  from  his  descrip- 
tion is,  I  should  think,  like  a  castle  in  Hermitland. 
Jeanne  and  I  are  dining  with  him  to-night  at  the 
Savoy.  You  and  Engleton  must  come,  too.  I  can 
arrange  it.  It  is  just  possible  that  we  may  be  able 
to  manage  something.  He  told  me  yesterday  that 
he  was  going  back  to  Norfolk  very  soon.  I  fancy 
that  he  has  a  brother  who  keeps  rather  a  strict 
watch  over  him,  and  he  is  not  allowed  to  stay  up 
in  town  very  long  at  a  time." 

".I  know  the  name,"  Forrest  remarked.  "  They 
are  a  very  old  Roman  Catholic  family.  We'll 
come  and  dine,  if  you  say  that  you  can  arrange  it. 
But  I  don't  see  how  we  can  all  hope  to  get  an  invi- 
tation out  of  him  on  such  a  short  acquaintance." 

The  Princess  was  looking  thoughtful. 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES        9 

"  Leave  it  to  me,"  she  said.  "  I  have  an  idea. 
Be  at  the  Savoy  at  a  quarter  past  eight,  and  bring 
Lord  Ronald." 

Forrest  took  up  his  hat.    He  looked  at  the  Prin- 

'cess  with  something  very  much  like  admiration  in 

his  face.    For  years  he  had  dominated  this  woman. 

To-day,  for  the  first  time,  she  had  had  the  upper 

hand. 

"  We  will  be  there  all  right,"  he  said.  "  Engle- 
ton  will  only  be  too  glad  to  be  where  Jeanne  is. 
I  suppose  young  De  la  Borne  is  the  same  way." 

The  Princess  sighed. 

"  Every  one,"  she  remarked,  "  is  so  shockingly 
mercenary !  " 


CHAPTER    II 

The  Princess  helped  herself  to  a  salted  almond 
and  took  her  first  sip  of  champagne.  The  almonds 
were  crisp  and  the  champagne  dry.  She  was  wear- 
ing a  new  and  most  successful  dinner-gown  of 
black  velvet,  and  she  was  quite  sure  that  in  the 
subdued  light  no  one  could  tell  that  the  pearls  in 
the  collar  around  her  neck  were  imitation.  Her 
afternoon's  indisposition  was  quite  forgotten.  She 
nodded  at  her  host  approvingly. 

"  Cecil,"  she  said,  "  it  is  really  very  good  of  you 
to  take  in  my  two  friends  like  this.  Major  Forrest 
has  just  arrived  from  Ostend,  and  I  was  very 
anxious  to  hear  about  the  people  I  know  there,  and 
the  frocks,  and  all  the  rest  of  it.  Lord  Ronald 
always  amuses  me,  too.  I  suppose  most  people 
would  call  him  foolish,  but  to  me  he  only  seems 
very,  very  young." 

The  young  man  who  was  host  raised  his  glass 
and  bowed  towards  the  Princess. 

"  I  can  assure  you,"  he  said,  "  that  it  has  given 
me  a  great  deal  of  pleasure  to  make  the  acquaint- 
ance of  Major  Forrest  and  Lord  Ronald,  but  it  has 


JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES      11 

given  me  more  pleasure  still  to  be  able  to  do  any- 
thing for  you.    You  know  that." 

She  looked  at  him  quickly,  and  down  at  her 
plate.  Such  glances  had  become  almost  a  habit 
with  her,  but  they  were  still  effectual.  Cecil  de  la 
Borne  leaned  across  towards  Forrest. 

"  I  hear  that  you  have  been  to  Ostend  lately, 
Major  Forrest,"  he  said.  "  I  thought  of  going 
over  myself  a  little  later  in  the  season  for  a  few 
days." 

"  ISvouldn't  if  I  were  you,"  Forrest  answered. 
"  It  is  overrun  just  now  with  the  wrong  sort  of 
people.  There  is  nothing  to  do  but  gamble,  which 
doesn't  interest  me  particularly;  or  dress  in  a 
ridiculous  costume  and  paddle  about  in  a  few  feet 
of  water,  which  appeals  to  me  even  less." 

"  You  were  there  a  little  early  in  the  season,"  the 
Princess  reminded  him. 

Major  Forrest  assented. 

"  A  little  later,"  he  admitted,  "  it  may  be  tol- 
erable. On  the  whole,  however,  I  was  disap- 
pointed." 

Lord  Ronald  spoke  for  the  first  time.  Fie  was 
very  thin,  very  long,  and  very  tall.  He  wore  a 
somewhat  unusually  high  collar,  but  he  was  very 
carefully,  not  to  say  exactly,  dressed.  His  studs 
and  links  and  waistcoat  buttons  were  obviously 
fresh  from  the  Rue  de  la  Paix.    The  set  of  his  tie 


12        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

was  perfection.  His  features  were  not  unintelli- 
gent, but  his  mouth  was  weak. 

"  One  thing  I  noticed  about  Ostend,"  he  re- 
marked, "  they  charge  you  a  frightful  price  for 
everything.  We  never  got  a  glass  of  champagne 
there  like  this." 

"  I  am  glad  you  like  it,"  their  host  said.  "  From 
what  you  say  I  don't  imagine  that  I  should  care 
for  Ostend.  I  am  not  rich  enough  to  gamble,  and 
as  I  have  lived  by  the  sea  all  my  days,  bathing  does 
not  attract  me  particularly.  I  think  I  shall  stay 
at  home." 

"  By  the  by,  where  is  your  home,  Mr.  De  la 
Borne?  "  the  Princess  asked.  "  You  told  me  once, 
but  I  have  forgotten.  Some  of  your  English 
names  are  so  queer  that  I  cannot  even  pronounce 
them,  much  more  remember  them." 

"  I  live  in  a  very  small  village  in  Norfolk, 
called  Salthouse,"  Cecil  de  la  Borne  answered. 
"It  is  quite  close  to  a  small  market-town  called 
Wells,  if  you  know  where  that  is.  I  don't  suppose 
you  do,  though,"  he  added.  "  It  is  an  out-of-the- 
way  corner  of  the  world." 

The  Princess  shook  her  head. 

"  I  never  heard  of  it,"  she  said.  "  I  am  going 
to  motor  through  Norfolk  soon,  though,  and  I 
think  that  I  shall  call  upon  you." 

Cecil  de  la  Borne  looked  up  eagerly. 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      13 

"  I  wish  you  would,"  he  begged,  "  and  bring 
your  step-daughter.  You  can't  imagine,"  he 
added,  with  a  glance  at  the  girl  who  was  sitting  at 
his  left  hand,  "  how  much  pleasure  it  would  give 
me.  The  roads  are  really  not  bad,  and  every  one 
admits  that  the  country  is  delightful." 

"  You  had  better  be  careful,"  the  Princess  said, 
"  or  we  may  take  you  at  your  word.  I  warn  you, 
though,  that  it  would  be  a  regular  invasion.  Major 
Forrest  and  Lord  Ronald  are  talking  about  com- 
ing with  us." 

"  It's  just  an  idea,"  Forrest  remarked  carelessly. 
"  I  wouldn't  mind  it  myself,  but  I  don't  fancy  we 
should  get  Engleton  away  from  town  before  Good- 
wood." 

"  Well,  I  like  that,"  Engleton  remarked.  "  For- 
rest's a  lot  keener  on  these  social  functions  than  I 
am.  As  a  matter  of  fact  I  am  for  the  tour,  on  one 
condition." 

"  And  that?  "  the  Princess  asked. 

"  That  you  come  in  my  car,"  Lord  Ronald  an- 
swered. "  I  haven't  really  had  a  chance  to  try  it 
yet,  but  it's  a  sixty  horse  Mercedes,  and  it's  fitted 
up  for  touring.  Take  the  lot  of  us  easy,  luggage 
and  everything." 

"  I  think  it  would  be  perfectly  delightful," 
the  Princess  declared.  "  Do  you  really  mean 
it?" 


14        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

"  Of  course  I  do,"  Lord  Ronald  answered. 
"  It's  too  hot  for  town,  and  I'm  rather  great  on 
rusticating,  myself." 

"  I  think  this  is  charming,"  the  Princess  de- 
clared. "  Here  we  have  one  of  our  friends  with 
a  car  and  another  with  a  house.  But  seriously, 
Cecil,  we  mustn't  think  of  coming  to  you.  There 
would  be  too  many  of  us." 

"  The  more  the  better,"  Cecil  said  eagerly. 
"  If  you  really  want  to  attempt  anything  in  the 
shape  of  a  rest-cure,  I  can  recommend  my  home 
thoroughly.  I  am  afraid,"  he  added,  with  a  shrug 
of  the  shoulders,  "  that  I  cannot  recommend  it  for 
anything  else." 

"  A  rest,"  the  Princess  declared,  "  is  exactly 
what  we  want.  Life  here  is  becoming  altogether 
too  strenuous.  We  started  the  season  a  little  early. 
I  am  perfectly  certain  that  we  could  not  possibly 
last  till  the  end.  Until  I  arrived  in  London  with 
an  heiress  under  my  charge,  I  had  no  idea  that  I 
was  such  a  popular  person." 

The  girl  who  was  sitting  on  the  other  side  of 
their  host  spoke  almost  for  the  first  time.  She  was 
evidently  quite  young,  and  her  pale  cheeks,  dark 
full  eyes,  and  occasional  gestures,  indicated  clearly 
enough  something  foreign  in  her  nationality.  She 
addressed  no  one  in  particular,  but  she  looked 
toward  Forrest. 


JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES       15 

"  That  is  one  of  the  things,"  she  said,  "  which 
puzzles  me.  I  do  not  understand  it  at  all.  It 
seems  as  though  every  one  is  liked  or  disliked,  here 
in  London  at  any  rate,  according  to  the  amount  of 
money  they  have." 

"  Upon  my  word,  Miss  Jeanne,  it  isn't  so  with 
every  one,"  Lord  Ronald  interposed  hastily. 

She  glanced  at  him  indifferently. 

"  There  may  be  exceptions,"  she  said.  "  I  am 
speaking  of  the  great  number." 

"  For  Heaven's  sake,  child,  don't  be  cynical !  " 
the  Princess  remarked.  "  There  is  no  worse  pose 
for  a  child  of  your  age." 

"  It  is  not  a  pose  at  all,"  Jeanne  answered 
calmly.  '  I  do  not  want  to  be  cynical,  and  I  do 
not  want  to  have  unkind  thoughts.  But  tell  me, 
Lord  Ronald,  honestly,  do  you  think  that  every 
one  would  have  been  as  kind  to  a  girl  just  out  of 
boarding-school  as  they  have  been  to  me  if  it  were 
not  that  I  have  so  much  money?  " 

"  I  cannot  tell  about  others,"  Lord  Ronald  an- 
swered.    "  I  can  only  answer  for  myself." 

His  last  words  were  almost  whispered  in  the 
girl's  ears,  but  she  only  shrugged  her  shoulders 
and  did  not  return  his  gaze.  Their  host,  who  had 
been  watching  them,  frowned  slightly.  He  was 
beginning  to  think  that  Engleton  was  scarcely  as 
pleasant  a  fellow  as  he  had  thought  him. 


1G        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

"  Well,"  he  said,  "  Miss  Le  Mesurier  will  find 
out  in  time  who  are  really  her  friends." 

"  It  is  a  safe  plan,"  Major  Forrest  remarked, 
"  and  a  pleasant  one,  to  believe  in  everybody  until 
they  want  something  from  you.  Then  is  the  time 
for  distrust." 

Jeanne  sighed. 

"  And  by  that  time,  perhaps,"  she  said,  "  one's 
affections  are  hopelessly  engaged.  I  think  that  it 
is  a  very  difficult  world." 

The  Princess  shrugged  her  shoulders. 

"  Three  months,"  she  remarked,  "  is  not  a  long 
time.  Wait,  my  dear  child,  until  you  have  at  least 
lived  through  a  single  season  before  you  commit 
yourself  to  any  final  opinions." 

Their  host  intervened.  He  was  beginning  to 
find  the  conversation  dull.  He  was  far  more  inter- 
ested in  another  matter. 

"  Let  us  talk  about  that  visit,"  he  said  to  the 
Princess.  "  I  do  wish  that  you  could  make  up  your 
mind  to  come.  Of  course,  I  haven't  any  amuse- 
ments to  offer  you,  but  you  could  rest  as  thoroughly 
as  you  like.  They  say  that  the  air  is  the  finest  in 
England.  There  is  always  bridge,  you  know,  for 
the  evenings,  and  if  Miss  Jeanne  likes  bathing,  my 
gardens  go  down  to  the  beach." 

"  It  sounds  delightful,"  the  Princess  said,  "  and 
exactly  what  we  want.     We  have  a  good  many 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      17 

invitations,  but  I  have  not  cared  to  accept  any  of 
them,  for  I  do  not  think  that  Jeanne  would  care 
much  for  the  life  at  an  ordinary  country  house.  I 
myself,"  she  continued,  with  perfect  truth,  "  am 
not  squeamish,  but  the  last  house-party  I  was  at  was 
certainly  not  the  place  for  a  very  young  girl." 

"  Make  up  your  mind,  then,  and  say  yes,"  Cecil, 
de  la  Borne  pleaded. 

"  You  shall  hear  from  us  within  the  next  few 
days,"  the  Princess  answered.  "  I  really  believe 
that  we  shall  come." 

The  little  party  left  the  restaurant  a  few  minutes 
later  on  their  way  into  the  foyer  for  coffee.  The 
Princess  contrived  to  pass  out  with  Forrest  as  her 
companion. 

"  I  think,"  she  said  under  her  breath,  "  that  this 
is  the  best  opportunity  you  could  possibly  have. 
We  shall  be  quite  alone  down  there,  and  perhaps 
it  would  be  as  well  that  you  were  out  of  London 
for  a  few  weeks.  If  it  does  not  come  to  anything 
we  can  easily  make  an  excuse  to  get  away." 

Forrest  nodded. 

"  But  who  is  this  young  man,  De  la  Borne?" 
he  asked.  "  I  don't  mean  that.  I  know  who  he  is, 
of  course,  but  why  should  he  invite  perfect  stran- 
gers to  stay  with  him?  " 

The  Princess  smiled  faintly. 

11  Can't  you   see,"   she   answered,   "  that  he   is 


18        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

simply  a  silly  boy?  He  is  only  twenty-four  years 
old,  and  I  think  that  he  cannot  have  seen  much 
of  the  world.  He  told  me  that  he  had  just  been 
abroad  for  the  first  time.  He  fancies  that  he  is  a 
little  in  love  with  me,  and  he  is  dazzled,  of  course, 
by  the  idea  of  Jeanne's  fortune.  He  wants  to  play 
the  host  to  us.  Let  him.  I  should  be  glad  enough 
to  get  away  for  a  few  weeks,  if  only  to  escape 
from  these  pestering  letters.  I  do  think  that  one's 
tradespeople  might  let  one  alone  until  the  end  of 
the  season." 

Forrest,  who  wras  feeling  a  good  deal  braver 
since  dinner,  on  the  whole  favoured  the  idea. 

"  I  do  not  see,"  he  remarked,  "  why  it  should 
not  work  out  verv  well  indeed.  There  will  be 
nothing  to  do  in  the  evenings  except  to  play  bridge, 
and  no  one  to  interfere." 

"  Besides  which,"  the  Princess  remarked,  "  you 
will  be  out  of  London  for  a  few  weeks,  and  I  dare 
say  that  if  you  keep  away  from  the  clubs  for  a  time 
and  lose  a  few  rubbers  when  you  get  back  your 
little  trouble  may  blow  over." 

"  I  suppose,"  Forrest  remarked  thoughtfully, 
"  this  young  De  la  Borne  has  no  people  living  with 
him,  guardians,  or  that  sort  of  thing?  " 

"  No  one  of  any  account,"  the  Princess  an- 
swered. "  His  father  and  mother  are  both  dead. 
I  am  afraid,  though,  he  will  not  be  of  any  use  to 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      19 

you,  for  from  what  I  can  hear  he  is  quite  poor. 
However,  Engleton  ought  to  be  quite  enough  if  we 
can  keep  him  in  the  humour  for  playing." 

"  Ask  him  a  few  more  questions  about  the 
place,"  Forrest  said.  "  If  it  seems  all  right,  I 
should  like  to  start  as  soon  as  possible." 

They  had  their  coffee  at  a  little  table  in  the 
foyer,  which  was  already  crowded  with  people. 
Their  conversation  was  often  interrupted  by  the 
salutations  of  passing  acquaintances.  Jeanne  alone 
looked  about  her  with  any  interest.  To  the  others, 
this  sort  of  thing  —  the  music  of  the  red-coated 
band,  the  flowers,  and  the  passing  throngs  of  peo- 
ple, the  handsomest  and  the  weariest  crowd  in  the 
wrorld  —  were  only  part  of  the  treadmill  of  life. 

"  By  the  by,  Mr.  De  la  Borne,"  the  Princess 
asked,  "  how  much  longer  are  you  going  to  stay 
in  London?  " 

"  I  must  go  back  to-morrow  or  the  next  day," 
the  young  man  answered,  a  little  gloomily.  '  I 
sha'n't  mind  it  half  so  much  if  you  people  only 
make  up  your  minds  to  pay  me  that  visit." 

The  Princess  motioned  to  him  to  draw  his  chair 
a  little  nearer  to  hers. 

"  If  we  take  this  tour  at  all,"  she  remarked, 
"  I  should  like  to  start  the  day  after  to-morrow. 
There  is  a  perfectly  hideous  function  on  Thursday 
which  I  should  so  like  to  miss,  and  the  stupidest 


20        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

dinner-party  on  earth  at  night.  Should  you  be 
home  by  then,  do  you  think?  " 

"  If  there  were  any  chance  of  your  coming  at 
all,"  the  young  man  answered  eagerly,  "  I  should 
leave  by  the  first  train  to-morrow  morning." 

"  I  think,"  the  Princess  declared  softly,  "  that 
we  will  come.  Don't  think  me  rude  if  I  say  that 
we  could  not  possibly  be  more  bored  than  we  are 
in  London.  I  do  not  want  to  take  Jeanne  to  any 
of  the  country  house-parties  we  have  been  invited 
to.  You  know  why.  She  really  is  such  a  child, 
and  I  am  afraid  that  if  she  gets  any  wrong  ideas 
about  things  she  may  want  to  go  back  to  the  con- 
vent.   She  has  hinted  at  it  more  than  once  already." 

"  There  will  be  nothing  of  that  sort  at  Salt- 
house,"  Cecil  de  la  Borne  declared  eagerly.  "  You 
see,  I  sha'n't  have  any  guests  at  all  except  just  your- 
selves.   Don't  you  think  that  would  be  best?  " 

"  I  do,  indeed,"  the  Princess  assented,  '  and 
mind,  you  are  not  to  make  any  special  preparations 
for  us.  For  my  part,  I  simply  want  a  little  rest 
before  we  go  abroad  again,  and  we  really  want 
to  come  to  you  feeling  the  same  way  that  one  leaves 
one's  home  for  lodgings  in  a  farmhouse.  You  will 
understand  this,  won't  you,  Cecil?"  she  added 
earnestly,  laying  her  fingers  upon  his  arm,  "  or 
we  shall  not  come." 

"  It   shall  be   just  as   you   say,"   he   answered. 


JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES       21 

"  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  Red  Hall  is  little  more 
than  a  large  farmhouse,  and  there  is  very  little 
preparation  which  I  could  make  for  you  in  a  day 
or  a  day  and  a  half.  You  shall  come  and  see  how 
-a  poor  English  countryman  lives,  whose  lands  and 
income  have  shrivelled  up  together.  If  you  are 
dull  you  will  not  blame  me,  I  know,  for  all  that 
you  have  to  do  is  to  go  away." 

The  Princess  rose  and  put  out  her  hand. 

"  It  is  settled,  then,"  she  declared.  "  Thank 
you,  dear  Mr.  Host,  for  your  very  delightful  din- 
ner. Jeanne  and  I  have  to  go  on  to  Harlingham 
House  for  an  hour  or  two,  the  last  of  these  terrible 
entertainments,  I  am  glad  to  say.  Do  send  me  a 
note  round  in  the  morning,  with  the  exact  name  of 
your  house,  and  some  idea  of  the  road  we  must 
follow,  so  that  we  do  not  get  lost.  I  suppose  you 
two,"  she  added,  turning  to  Forrest  and  Lord 
Ronald,  "  will  not  mind  starting  a  day  or  two  be- 
fore we  had  planned?  " 

"  Not  in  the  least,"  they  assured  her. 

"And  Miss  Le  Mesurier?"  Cecil  de  la  Borne 
asked.  "  Will  she  really  not  mind  giving  up  some 
of  these  wonderful  entertainments?  " 

Jeanne  smiled  upon  him  brilliantly.  It  was  a 
smile  which  came  so  seldom,  and  which,  when  it 
did  come,  transformed  her  face  so  utterly,  that  she 
seemed  like  a  different  person. 


22        JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES 

"  I  shall  be  very  glad,  indeed,"  she  said,  "  to 
leave  London.  I  am  looking  forward  so  much  to 
seeing  what  the  English  country  is  like." 

"  It  will  make  me  very  happy,"  Cecil  de  la  Borne 
said,  bowing  over  her  hand,  "to  try  and  show 
you." 

Her  eyes  seemed  to  pass  through  him,  to  look 
out  of  the  crowded  room,  as  though  indeed  they 
had  found  their  way  into  some  corner  of  the  world 
where  the  things  which  make  life  lie.  It  was  a 
lapse  from  which  she  recovered  almost  immedi- 
ately, but  when  she  looked  at  him,  and  with  a  little 
farewell  nod  withdrew  her  hand,  the  transforming 
gleam  had  passed  away. 

"  And  there  is  the  sea,  too,"  she  remarked, 
looking  backwards  as  they  passed  out.  "  I  am 
longing  to  see  that  again." 


CHAPTER    III 

Perhaps  there  was  never  a  moment  in  the  lives 
of  these  two  men  when  their  utter  and  radical  dis- 
similarity, physically  as  well  as  in  the  larger  ways, 
was  more  strikingly  and  absolutely  manifest.  Like 
a  great  sea  animal,  huge,  black-bearded,  bronzed, 
magnificent,  but  uncouth,  Andrew  de  la  Borne,  in 
the  oilskins  and  overalls  of  a  village  fisherman, 
stood  in  the  great  bare  hall  in  front  of  the  open 
fireplace,  reckless  of  his  drippings,  at  first  only 
mildly  amused  by  the  half  cynical,  half  angry  sur- 
vey of  the  very  elegant  young  man  who  had  just 
descended  the  splendid  oak  staircase,  with  its  finely 
carved  balustrade,  black  and  worm-eaten.  Cecil 
de  la  Borne  stared  at  his  brother  with  the  angry 
disgust  of  one  whose  sense  of  all  that  is  holiest 
stands  outraged.  Slim,  of  graceful  though  some- 
what undersized  figure,  he  was  conscious  of  having 
attained  perfection  in  matters  which  he  reckoned 
of  no  small  importance.  His  grey  tweed  suit  fitted 
him  like  a  glove,  his  tie  was  a  perfect  blend  be- 
tween the  colour  of  his  eyes  and  his  clothes,  his 
shoes  were  of  immaculate  shape  and  polish,  his 
socks  had  been  selected  with  care  in  the  Rue  de  la 


24        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

Paix.  His  hair  was  brushed  until  it  shone  with  the 
proper  amount  of  polish,  his  nails  were  perfectly 
manicured,  even  his  cigarette  came  from  the  dealer 
whose  wares  were  the  caprice  of  the  moment.  That 
his  complexion  was  pallid  and  that  underneath  his 
eyes  were  faint  blue  lines,  which  were  certainly  not 
the  hall-marks  of  robust  health,  disturbed  him  not 
at  all.  These  things  were  correct.  Health  was  by 
no  means  a  desideratum  in  the  set  to  which  he  was 
striving  to  belong.  He  looked  through  his  eyeglass 
at  his  brother  and  groaned. 

"  Really,  Andrew,"  he  said  calmly,  but  with  an 
undernote  of  anger  trembling  in  his  tone,  "  I  am 
surprised  to  see  you  like  this !  You  might,  I  think, 
have  had  a  little  more  consideration.  Can't  you 
realize  what  a  sight  you  are,  and  what  a  mess 
you're  making!  " 

Andrew  took  off  his  cap  and  shook  it,  so  that  a 
little  shower  of  salt  water  splashed  on  to  the  pol- 
ished floor. 

"  Never  mind,  Cecil,"  he  said  good-humouredly. 
"  You've  all  the  deportment  that's  necessary  in 
this  family.  And  salt  water  doesn't  stain.  These 
boards  have  been  washed  with  it  many  a  time." 

The  young  man's  face  lost  none  of  his  irritation. 

"  But  what  on  earth  have  you  been  doing?  "  he 
exclaimed.  "  Where  have  you  been  to  get  in  a 
state  like  that?" 


JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES      25 

Andrew's  face  was  suddenly  overcast.  It  did 
not  please  him  to  think  of  those  last  few  hours. 

"  I  had  to  go  out  to  bring  a  mad  woman  home," 
he  said.  "  Kate  Caynsard  was  out  in  her  catboat 
a  day  like  this.  It  was  suicide  if  I  hadn't  reached 
her  in  time." 

"You  —  did  reach  her  in  time?"  the  young 
man  asked  quickly. 

Andrew  turned  to  face  the  questioner,  and  the 
eyes  of  the  brothers  met.  Again  the  differences 
between  them  seemed  to  be  suddenly  and  marvel- 
lously accentuated.  Andrew's  cheeks,  bronzed  and 
hardened  with  a  life  spent  wholly  out  of  doors, 
were  glistening  still  with  the  salt  water  which 
dripped  down  from  his  hair  and  hung  in  sparkling 
globules  from  his  beard.  Cecil  was  paler  than 
ever;  there  was  something  almost  furtive  in  that 
swift  insistent  look.  Perhaps  Andrew  recognized 
this.  Perhaps  he  recognized  something  of  what 
was  in  the  other's  mind.  At  any  rate  the  good- 
nature left  his  manner  —  his  tone  took  to  itself  a 
sterner  note. 

"  I  came  back,"  he  said  grimly.  "  I  should  not 
have  come  back  alone.  She  was  hard  to  save,  too," 
he  added,  after  a  moment's  pause. 

"  She  is  mad,"  Cecil  muttered.  "  A  queer  lot, 
all  the  Caynsards." 

"  She  is  as  sane  as  you  or  I,"  his  brother  an- 


26        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

swered.  "  She  does  rash  things,  and  she  chooses  ta 
treat  her  life  as  though  it  were  a  matter  of  no 
moment.  But  that  is  not  insanity.  She  took  a 
fifty  to  one  chance  at  the  bar,  and  she  nearly  lost. 
But,  by  Heaven,  you  should  have  seen  her  bring 
my  little  boat  down  the  creek,  with  the  tide  swell- 
ing, and  a  squall  right  on  the  top  of  us.  It  was 
magnificent.     Cecil!" 

"Well?" 

"  Why  does  Kate  Caynsard  treat  her  life  as 
though  it  were  of  less  value  than  the  mackerel  she 
lowers  her  line  for?     Do  you  know?  ' 

The  younger  man  dropped  his  eyeglass  and 
shrugged  his  shoulders  contemptuously. 

"  Since  when,"  he  demanded,  "  have  I  shown 
any  inclination  to  play  the  village  Lothario?  Thick 
ankles  and  robust  health  never  appealed  to  me  — 
I  prefer  the  sicklier  graces  of  civilization." 

"  Kate  Caysnard,"  Andrew  said  thoughtfully, 
"  is  not  of  the  villagers.  She  leads  their  life,  but 
her  birth  is  better  on  her  father's  side,  at  any  rate, 
than  our  own." 

"  If  I  might  be  allowed  to  make  the  suggestion," 
Cecil  said,  regarding  his  brother  with  supercili- 
ous distaste,  "  don't  you  think  it  would  be  just  as 
well  to  change  your  clothes  before  our  guests  ar- 
rive  r 

"Why    should     I?"     Andrew    asked    calmly. 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      27 

1  They  are  not  my  friends.  I  scarcely  know  even 
their  names.  I  entertain  them  at  your  request. 
Why  should  I  be  ashamed  of  my  oilskins  ?  They 
are  in  accord  with  the  life  I  live  here.  I  make  no 
pretence,  you  see,  Cecil,"  he  added,  with  a  faintly 
amused  smile,  "  at  being  an  ornamental  member  of 
Society." 

His  brother  regarded  him  with  something  very 
much  like  disgust. 

"No!'    he  said  sarcastically.     "No  one  could 
accuse  you  of  that." 

Something  in  his  tone  seemed  to  suggest  to  An- 
drew a  new  idea.  He  looked  down  at  the  clothes 
he  wore  beneath  his  oilskins  —  the  clothes  almost 
of  a  working  man.  He  glanced  for  a  moment  at 
his  hands,  hardened  and  blistered  with  the  actual 
toil  which  he  loved  —  and  he  looked  his  brother 
straight  in  the  face. 

"  Cecil,"  he  said,  "  I  believe  you're  ashamed  of 
me. 

"  Of  course  I  am,"  the  younger  man  answered 
brutally.  "  It's  your  own  fault.  You  choose  to 
make  a  fisherman  or  a  labouring  man  of  yourself. 
I  haven't  seen  you  in  a  decent  suit  of  clothes  for 
years.  You  won't  dress  for  dinner.  Your  hands 
and  skin  are  like  a  ploughboy's.  And,  d — n  it  all, 
you're  my  elder  brother !  I've  got  to  introduce  you 
to  my  friends  as  the  head  of  the  De  la  Bornes,  and 


28        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

practically  their  host.    No  wonder  I  don't  like  it ! ' 

There  was  a  moment's  silence.  If  his  words 
hurt,  Andrew  made  no  sign.  With  a  shrug  of  the 
shoulders  he  turned  towards  the  staircase. 

"  There  is  no  reason,"  he  remarked,  carelessly 
enough,  "  why  I  should  inflict  the  humiliation  of 
my  presence  on  you  or  on  your  friends.  I  am  going 
down  to  the  Island.  You  shall  entertain  your 
friends  and  play  the  host  to  your  heart's  content. 
It  will  be  more  comfortable  for  both  of  us." 

Cecil  prided  himself  upon  a  certain  impassivity 
of  features  and  manner  which  some  fin  de  siecle 
oracle  of  the  cities  had  pronounced  good  form,  but 
he  was  not  wholly  able  to  conceal  his  relief.  Such 
an  arrangement  was  entirely  to  his  liking.  It 
solved  the  situation  satisfactorily  in  more  ways 
than  one. 

"  It's  a  thundering  good  idea,  Andrew,  if  you're 
sure  you'll  be  comfortable  there,"  he  declared.  "  I 
don't  believe  you  would  get  on  with  my  friends  a 
bit.  They're  not  your  sort.  Seems  like  turning 
you  out  of  your  own  house,  though." 

"  It  is  of  no  consequence,"  Andrew  said  coldly. 
"  I  shall  be  perfectly  comfortable." 

"  You  see,"  Cecil  continued,  "  they're  not  keen 
on  sport  at  all,  and  you  don't  play  bridge  — ' 

Andrew  had  already  disappeared.  Cecil  turned 
back  into  the  hall  and  lit  a  cigarette. 


JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES       29 

"  Phew!  What  a  relief!  "  he  muttered  to  him- 
self. "  If  only  he  has  the  sense  to  keep  away  all 
the  time!  " 

He  rang  the  bell,  which  was  answered  by  a 
butler  newly  imported  from  town. 

"  Clear  away  all  this  mess,  James,"  Cecil  or- 
dered, pointing  in  disgust  to  the  wet  places  upon 
the  floor,  and  the  still  dripping  southwester,  "  and 
serve  tea  here  in  an  hour,  or  directly  my  friends 
arrive  —  tea,  and  whisky  and  soda,  and  liqueurs, 
you  know,  with  sandwiches  and  things." 

"  I  will  do  my  best,  sir,"  the  man  answered. 
"  The  kitchen  arrangements  are  a  little  —  behind 
the  times,  if  I  might  venture  to  say  so." 

"  I  know,  I  know,"  Cecil  answered  irritably. 
"  The  place  has  been  allowed  to  go  on  anyhow 
while  I  was  away.  Do  what  you  can,  and  let  them 
know  outside  that  they  must  make  room  for  one, 
or  perhaps  two  automobiles.  .  .  ." 

Upstairs  Andrew  was  rapidly  throwing  a  few 
things  together.  With  an  odd  little  laugh  he  threw 
into  the  bottom  of  a  wardrobe  an  unopened  parcel 
of  new  clothes  and  a  dress  suit  which  had  been 
carefully  brushed.  In  less  than  twenty  minutes  he 
had  left  the  house  by  the  back  way,  with  a  small 
portmanteau  poised  easily  upon  his  massive  shoul- 
ders. As  he  turned  from  the  long  ill-kept  avenue, 
with  its  straggling  wind-smitten  trees  all  exposed 


30        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

to  the  tearing  ocean  gales,  into  the  high  road,  a 
great  automobile  swung  round  the  corner  and  slack- 
ened speed.  Major  Forrest  leaned  out  and  ad- 
dressed him. 

"  Can  you  tell  me  if  this  is  the  Red  Hall,  my 
man  —  Mr.  De  la  Borne's  place?"  he  asked. 

Andrew  nodded,  without  a  glance  at  the  veiled 
and  shrouded  women  who  were  leaning  forward  to 
hear  his  answer. 

"  The  next  avenue  is  the  front  way,"  he  said. 
"  Mind  how  you  turn  in  —  the  corner  is  rather 
sharp." 

He  spoke  purposely  in  broad  Norfolk,  and 
passed  on. 

"  What  a  Goliath !  "  Engleton  remarked. 

"  I  should  like  to  sketch  him,"  the  Princess 
drawled.     "  His  shoulders  were  magnificent." 

But  neither  of  them  had  any  idea  that  they  had 
spoken  with  the  owner  of  the  Red  Hall. 


CHAPTER  IV 

About  half-way  through  dinner  that  night, 
Cecil  de  la  Borne  drew  a  long  sigh  of  relief.  At 
last  his  misgivings  were  set  at  rest.  His  party  was 
going  to  be,  was  already,  in  fact,  pronounced,  a 
success.  A  glance  at  his  fair  neighbour,  however, 
who  was  lighting  her  third  or  fourth  Russian  ciga- 
rette since  the  caviare,  sent  a  shiver  of  thankfulness 
through  his  whole  being.  What  a  sensible  fellow 
Andrew  had  been  to  clear  out.  This  sort  of  thing 
would  not  have  appealed  to  him  at  all. 

I  My  dear  Cecil,"  the  Princess  declared,  "  I  call 
this  perfectly  delightful.  Jeanne  and  I  have 
wanted  so  much  to  see  you  in  your  own  home. 
Jeanne,  isn't  this  nicer,  ever  so  much  nicer,  than 
anything  you  had  imagined?  " 

Jeanne,  who  was  sitting  opposite,  lifted  her  re- 
markable eyes  and  glanced  around  with  interest. 

II  Yes,"  she  admitted,  "  I  think  that  it  is!  But 
then,  any  place  that  looks  in  the  least  like  a  home 
is  a  delightful  change  after  all  that  rushing  about 
in  London." 

"  I    agree   with   you   entirely,"    Major    Forrest 


32        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

declared.  "  If  our  friend  has  disappointed  us  at 
all,  it  is  in  the  absence  of  that  primitiveness  which 
he  led  us  to  expect.  One  perceives  that  one  is 
drinking  Veuve  Clicquot  of  a  vintage  year,  and  one 
suspects  the  nationality  of  our  host's  cook." 

"  You  can  have  all  the  primitivism  you  want  if 
you  look  out  of  the  windows,"  Cecil  remarked 
drily.  "  You  will  see  nothing  but  a  line  of  stunted 
trees,  and  behind,  miles  of  marshes  and  the  greyest 
sea  which  ever  played  upon  the  land.  Listen  !  You 
don't  hear  a  sound  like  that  in  the  cities." 

Even  as  he  spoke  they  heard  the  dull  roar  of  the 
north  wind  booming  across  the  wild  empty  places 
which  lay  between  the  Red  Hall  and  the  sea.  A 
storm  of  raindrops  was  flung  against  the  window. 
The  Princess  shivered. 

"  It  is  an  idyll,  the  last  word  in  the  refining  of 
sensations,"  Major  Forrest  declared.  "  You  give 
us  sybaritic  luxury,  and  in  order  that  we  shall  real- 
ize it,  you  provide  the  background  of  savagery. 
In  the  Carlton  one  might  dine  like  this  and  accept 
it  as  a  matter  of  course.  Appreciation  is  forced 
upon  us  by  these  suggestions  of  the  wilderness 
without." 

11  Not  all  without,  either,"  Cecil  de  la  Borne  re- 
marked, raising  his  eyeglass  and  pointing  to  the 
walls.  "  See  where  my  ancestors  frown  down  upon 
us  —  you    can    only    just    distinguish    their    bare 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      33 

shapes.  No  De  la  Borne  has  had  money  enough 
to  have  them  renovated  or  even  preserved.  They 
have  eaten  their  way  into  the  canvases,  and  the  can- 
vases into  the  very  walls.  You  see  the  empty 
spaces,  too.  A  Reynolds  and  a  Gainsboro'  have 
been  cut  out  from  there  and  sold.  I  can  show  you 
long  empty  galleries,  pictureless,  and  without  a 
scrap  of  furniture.  We  have  ghosts  like  rats, 
rooms  where  the  curtains  and  tapestries  are  falling 
to  pieces  from  sheer  decay.  Oh !  I  can  assure  you 
that  our  primitivism  is  not  wholly  external." 

He  turned  from  the  Princess,  who  was  not 
greatly  interested,  to  find  that  for  once  he  had  suc- 
ceeded in  riveting  the  attention  of  the  girl,  whose 
general  attitude  towards  him  and  the  whole  world 
seemed  to  be  one  of  barely  tolerant  indifference. 

"  I  should  like  to  see  over  your  house,  Mr.  De  la 
Borne,"  she  said.    "  It  all  sounds  very  interesting." 

"  I  am  afraid,"  he  answered,  "  that  your  interest 
would  not  survive  very  long.  We  have  no  treasures 
left,  nor  anything  worth  looking  at.  For  genera- 
tions the  De  la  Bornes  have  stripped  their  house 
and  sold  their  lands  to  hold  their  own  in  the  world. 
I  am  the  last  of  my  race,  and  there  is  nothing  left 
for  me  to  sell,"  he  declared,  with  a  momentary 
bitterness. 

"  Hadn't  you  —  a  half  brother?"  the  Princess 
asked. 


34        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

Cecil  hesitated  for  a  moment.  He  had  drifted 
so  easily  into  the  position  of  head  of  the  house.  It 
was  so  natural.  He  felt  that  he  filled  the  place  so 
perfectly. 

"  I  have,"  he  admitted,  "  but  he  counts,  I  am 
sorry  to  say,  for  very  little.  You  are  never  likely 
to  come  across  him  —  nor  any  other  civilized  per- 
son." 

There  was  a  subtle  indication  in  his  tone  of  a 
desire  not  to  pursue  the  subject.  His  guests  natu- 
rally respected  it.  There  was  a  moment's  silence. 
Then  Cecil  once  more  leaned  forward.  He  hesi- 
tated for  a  moment,  even  after  his  lips  had  parted, 
as  though  for  some  reason  he  were  inclined,  after 
all,  to  remain  silent,  but  the  consciousness  that 
every  one  was  looking  at  him  and  expecting  him  to 
speak  induced  him  to  continue  with  what,  after  all, 
he  had  suddenly,  and  for  no  explicit  reason,  hesi- 
tated to  say. 

"  You  spoke,  Miss  Le  Mesurier,"  he  began,  "  of 
looking  over  the  house,  and,  as  I  told  you,  there  is 
\rery  little  in  it  worth  seeing.  And  yet  I  can  show 
you  something,  not  in  the  house  itself,  but  con- 
nected with  it,  which  you  might  find  interesting." 

The  Princess  leaned  forward  in  her  chair. 

"  This  sounds  so  interesting,"  she  murmured. 
"  What  is  it,  Cecil?    A  haunted  chamber?  " 

Their  host  shook  his  head. 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      35 

"  Something  far  more  tangible,"  he  answered, 
"  although  in  its  way  quite  as  remarkable.  Hun- 
dreds of  years  ago,  smuggling  on  this  coast  was  not 
only  a  means  of  livelihood  for  the  poor,  but  the 
diversion  of  the  rich.  I  had  an  ancestor  who  be- 
came very  notorious.  His  name  seems  to  have  been 
a  by-word,  although  he  was  never  caught,  or  if  he 
was  caught,  never  punished.  He  built  a  subterra- 
nean way  underneath  the  grounds,  leading  from  the 
house  right  to  the  mouth  of  one  of  the  creeks.  The 
passage  still  exists,  with  great  cellars  for  storing 
smuggled  goods,  and  a  room  where  the  smugglers 
used  to  meet." 

Jeanne  looked  at  him  with  parted  lips. 

"  You  can  show  me  this?  "  she  asked,  "  the  pas- 
sage and  the  cellars?  " 

Cecil  nodded. 

"  I  can,"  he  answered.  "  Quite  a  weird  place  it 
Is,  too.  The  walls  are  damp,  and  the  cellars  them- 
selves are  like  the  vaults  of  a  cathedral.  All  the 
time  at  high  tide  you  can  hear  the  sea  thundering 
over  your  head.  To-morrow,  if  you  like,  we  will 
get  torches  and  explore  them." 

11 1  should  love  to,"  Jeanne  declared.  "  Can  you 
get  out  now  at  the  other  end?  " 

Cecil  nodded. 

"  The  passage,"  he  said,  "  starts  from  a  room 
which  was  once  the  library,  and  ends  half-way  up 


36        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

the  only  little  piece  of  cliff  there  is.  It  is  about 
thirty  feet  from  the  ground,  but  they  had  a  sort  of 
apparatus  for  pulling  up  the  barrels,  and  a  rope 
ladder  for  the  men.  The  preventive  officers  would 
see  the  boat  come  up  the  creek,  and  would  march 
down  from  the  village,  only  to  find  it  empty.  Of 
course,  they  suspected  all  the  time  where  the  things 
went,  but  they  could  not  prove  it,  and  as  my  an- 
cestor was  a  magistrate  and  an  important  man 
they  did  not  dare  to  search  the  house." 

The  Princess  sighed  gently. 
'  Those   were  the   days,"    she  murmured,    "  in 
which    it   must   have    been    worth    while   to    live. 
Things    happened    then.      To-day    your    ancestor 
would  simply  have  been  called  a  thief." 

"  As  a  matter  of  fact,"  Cecil  remarked,  "  I  do 
not  think  that  he  himself  benefited  a  penny  by  any 
of  his  exploits.  It  was  simply  the  love  of  adven- 
ture which  led  him  into  it." 

"  Even  if  he  did,"  Major  Forrest  remarked, 
"  that  same  predatory  instinct  is  alive  to-day  in 
another  guise.  The  whole  world  is  preying  upon 
one  another.  We  are  thieves,  all  of  us,  to  the  tips 
of  our  finger-nails,  only  our  roguery  is  conducted 
with  due  regard  to  the  law." 

The  Princess  smiled  faintly  as  she  glanced  across 
the  table  at  the  speaker. 

"  I  am  afraid,"  she  said,  with  a  little  sigh,  "  that 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      37 

you  are  right.  I  do  not  think  that  we  have  really 
improved  with  the  centuries.  My  own  ancestors 
sacked  towns  and  held  the  inhabitants  to  ransom. 
To-day  I  sit  down  to  bridge  opposite  a  man  with 
a  well-filled  purse,  and  my  one  idea  is  to  lighten  it. 
Nothing,  I  am  convinced,  but  the  fear  of  being 
found  out,  keeps  us  reasonably  moral." 

"  If  we  go  on  talking  like  this,"  Lord  Ronald 
remarked,  "  we  shall  make  Miss  Le  Mesurier  nerv- 
ous. She  will  feel  that  we,  and  the  whole  of  the 
rest  of  the  world,  have  our  eyes  upon  her  money- 
bags." 

"  I  am  absolutely  safe,"  Jeanne  answered  smi- 
ling. "  I  do  not  play  bridge,  and  even  my  signa- 
ture would  be  of  no  use  to  any  one  yet." 

"  But  you  might  imagine  us,"  Lord  Ronald  con- 
tinued, "  waiting  around  breathlessly  until  the 
happy  time  arrived  when  you  were  of  age,  and  we 
could  pursue  our  diabolical  schemes." 

Jeanne  shook  her  head. 

1  You  cannot  frighten  me,  Lord  Ronald,"  she 
said.  "  I  feel  safe  from  every  one.  I  am  only 
longing  for  to-morrow,  for  a  chance  to  explore  this 
wonderful  subterranean  passage." 

"  I  am  afraid,"  their  host  remarked,  "  that  you 
will  be  disappointed.  With  the  passing  of  smug- 
gling, the  romance  of  the  thing  seems  to  have  died. 
There  is  nothing  now  to  look  at  but  mouldy  walls, 


38        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

a  bare  room,  and  any  amount  of  the  most  hideous 
fungi.  I  can  promise  you  that  when  you  have  been 
there  for  a  few  minutes  your  only  desire  will  be  to 
escape." 

"  I  am  not  so  sure,"  the  girl  answered.  "  I  think 
that  associations  always  have  an  effect  on  me.  I 
can  imagine  how  one  might  wait  there,  near  the  en- 
trance, hear  the  soft  swish  of  the  oars,  look  down 
and  see  the  smugglers,  hear  perhaps  the  muffled 
tramp  of  men  marching  from  the  village.  Fancy 
how  breathless  it  must  have  been,  the  excitement. 
the  fear  of  being  caught." 

Cecil  curled  his  slight  moustache  dubiously. 

"  If  you  can  feel  all  that  in  my  little  bit  of  under- 
ground world,"  he  said,  "  I  shall  think  that  you 
are  even  a  more  wonderful  person  —  ,1 

He  dropped  his  voice  and  leaned  toward  her,  but 
Jeanne  laughed  in  his  face  and  interrupted  him. 

"  People  who  own  things,"  she  remarked, 
"  never  look  upon  them  with  proper  reverence. 
Don't  you  see  that  my  mother  is  dying  for  some 
bridge?" 


CHAPTER   V 

The  Princess  was  only  obeying  a  faint  sign  from 
Forrest.  She  leaned  forward  and  addressed  her 
host. 

"  It  isn't  a  bad  idea,"  she  declared.  "  Where 
are  we  going  to  play  bridge,  Cecil?  In  some 
smaller  room,  I  hope.  This  one  is  really  beginning 
to  get  on  my  nerves  a  little.  There  is  an  ancestor 
exactly  opposite  who  has  fixed  me  with  a  luminous 
and  a  disapproving  eye.  And  the  blank  spaces  on 
the  wall!  Ugh!  I  feel  like  a  Goth.  We  are  too 
modern  for  this  place,  Cecil." 

Their  host  laughed  as  he  rose  and  turned 
towards  Jeanne. 

"  Your  mother,"  he  said,   "  is  beginning  to  be 

conscious  of  her  environment.    I  know  exactly  how 

she  is  feeling,  for  I  myself  am  a  constant  sufferer. 

Are  you,  too,  sighing  for  the  gilded  salons  of  civi- 

ization  r 

"  Not  in  the  least,"  Jeanne  answered  frankly. 
"  I  am  tired  of  mirrors  and  electric  lights  and  bab- 
ble. I  prefer  our  present  surroundings,  and  I 
should  not  mind  at  all  if  some  of  those  disapprov- 


40        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

ing  ancestors  of  yours  stepped  out  of  their  frames 
and  took  their  places  with  us  here." 
Cecil  laughed. 

"If  they  have  been  listening  to  our  conversa- 
tion," he  said,  "  I  think  that  they  will  stay  where 
they  are.  Like  royalty,"  he  continued,  'we  can 
boast  an  octagonal  chamber.  I  fear  that  its  glories 
are  of  the  past,  but  it  is  at  least  small,  and  the  wall- 
paper is  modern.  I  have  ordered  coffee  and  the 
card-tables  there.    Shall  we  go?" 

He  led  the  way  out  of  the  gloomy  room,  chilly 
and  bare,  yet  in  a  way  magnificent  still  with  its 
reminiscences  of  past  splendour,  across  the  hall, 
modernized  with  rugs  and  recent  furnishing,  into 
a  smaller  apartment,  where  cheerfulness  reigned. 
A  wood  fire  burnt  in  an  open  grate.  Lamps  and 
a  fine  candelabrum  gave  a  sufficiency  of  light.  The 
furniture,  though  old,  was  graceful,  and  of  French 
design.  It  had  been  the  sitting  chamber  of  the 
ladies  of  the  De  la  Borne  family  for  generations, 
and  it  bore  traces  of  its  gentler  occupation.  One 
thing  alone  remained  of  primevalism  to  remind 
them  of  their  closer  contact  with  the  great  forces 
of  nature.  The  chamber  was  built  in  the  tower, 
which  stood  exposed  to  the  sea,  and  the  roar  of  the 
wind  was  ceaseless. 

"  Here  at  least  we  shall  be  comfortable,  I  think," 
Cecil  remarked,  as  they  all  entered.    "  My  frescoes 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      41 

are  faded,  but  they  represent  flowers,  not  faces. 
There  are  no  eyes  to  stare  at  you  from  out  of  the 
walls  here,  Princess." 

The  Princess  laughed  gaily  as  she  seated  herself 
before  a  Louis  Quinze  card-table,  and  threw  a  pack 
of  cards  across  the  faded  green  baize  cloth. 

"  It  is  charming,  this,"  she  declared.  "  Shall  we 
challenge  these  two  boys,  Nigel?  You  are  the 
only  man  who  understands  my  leads,  and  who  does 
not  scold  me  for  my  declarations." 

"  I  am  perfectly  willing,"  Forrest  answered 
smoothly.     "  Shall  we  cut  for  deal?" 

Cecil  de  la  Borne  leaned  over  and  turned  up  a 
card. 

"  I  am  quite  content,"  he  remarked.  "  What 
do  you  say,  Engleton?  " 

Engleton  hesitated  for  a  moment.  The  Princess 
turned  and  looked  at  him.  He  was  standing  upon 
the  hearthrug  smoking,  his  face  as  expressionless 
as  ever. 

"  Let  us  cut  for  partners,"  he  drawled.  "  I  am 
afraid  of  the  Princess  and  Forrest.  The  last  time 
I  found  them  a  quite  invincible  couple." 

There  was  a  moment's  silence.  The  Princess 
glanced  toward  Forrest,  who  only  shrugged  his 
shoulders. 

"  Just  as  you  will,"  he  answered. 

He  turned  up  an  ace  and  the  Princess  a  three. 


42        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

"  After  all,"  he  remarked,  with  a  smile,  "  it 
seems  as  though  fate  were  going  to  link  us  to- 
gether." 

"  I  am  not  so  sure,"  Cecil  de  la  Borne  said,  also 
throwing  down  an  ace.  "  It  depends  now  upon 
Engleton." 

Engleton  came  to  the  table,  and  drew  a  card  at 
random  from  the  pack.  Forrest's  eyes  seemed  to 
narrow  a  little  as  he  looked  down  at  it.  Engleton 
had  drawn  another  ace. 

"  Forrest  and  I,"  he  remarked.  "  Jolly  low 
cutting,  too.  I  have  played  against  you  often, 
Forrest,  but  I  think  this  is  our  first  rubber  together. 
Here's  good  luck  to  us !  " 

He  tossed  off  his  liqueur  and  sat  down.  They 
cut  again  for  deal,  and  the  game  proceeded. 

Jeanne  had  moved  across  towards  the  window, 
and  laid  her  fingers  upon  the  heavy  curtains.  Cecil 
de  la  Borne,  who  was  dummy,  got  up  and  stood 
by  her  side. 

"  Do  you  know,"  she  said,  "  although  your  fres- 
coes are  flowers,  I  feel  that  there  are  eyes  in  this 
room,  too,  only  that  they  are  looking  in  from  the 
night.  Can  one  see  the  sea  from  here,  Mr.  De 
la  Borne?" 

"  It  is  scarcely  a  hundred  yards  away,"  he  an- 
swered. "  This  window  looks  straight  across  the 
German  Ocean,  and  if  you  look  long  enough  you 


JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES      43 

will,  see  the  white  of  the  breakers.  Listen !  You 
will  hear,  too,  what  my  forefathers,  and  those  who 
begat  them,  have  heard,  from  the  birth  of  the  gen- 
erations." 

The  girl,  with  strained  face,  stood  looking  out 
into  the  darkness.     Outside,  the  wind  and  sea  im- 
posed their  thunder  upon  the  land.    Within,  there 
was  no  sound  but  the  softer  patter  of  the  cards, 
the  languid  voices  of  the  four  who  played  bridge. 
A  curious  little  company,  on  the  whole.    The  Prin- 
cess of  Strurm,   whose  birth  was  as  sure  as  her 
social  standing  was  doubtful,  the  heroine  of  count- 
less scandals,  ignored  by  the  great  heads  of  her 
family,  impoverished,  living  no  one  knew  how,  yet 
remaining  the  legal  guardian  of  a  stepdaughter, 
who  was  reputed  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  heiresses 
in  Europe.    The  courts  had  moved  to  have  her  set 
aside,  and   failed.     A   Cardinal  of  her  late  hus- 
band's faith,  empowered  to  treat  with  her  on  behalf 
of  his  relations,  offered  a  fortune  for  her  cession 
of   Jeanne,    and   was   laughed   at    for   his   pains. 
Whatever  her  life  had  been,  she  remained  custo- 
dian of  the  child  of  the  great  banker  whom  she  had 
married    late    in    life.      She    endured    calmly    the 
threats,  the  entreaties,  the  bribes,  of  Jeanne's  own 
relations.    Jeanne,  she  was  determined,  should  en- 
ter life  under  her  wing,  and  hers  only.     In  the  end 
she  had  her  way.     Jeanne  was  entering  life  now, 


44        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

not  through  the  respectable  but  somewhat  bour- 
geois avenue  by  which  her  great  monied  relatives 
would  have  led  her,  but  under  the  auspices  of  her 
stepmother,  whose  position  as  chaperon  to  a  great 
heiress  had  already  thrown  open  a  great  many 
doors  which  would  have  been  permanently  closed 
to  her  in  any  other  guise.  The  Princess  herself 
was  always  consistent.  She  assumed  to  herself  an 
arrogant  right  to  do  as  she  pleased  and  live  as  she 
pleased.  She  was  of  the  House  of  Strurm,  which 
had  been  noble  for  centuries,  and  had  connections 
with  royalty.  That  was  enough.  A  few  forgot 
her  past  and  admitted  her  claim.  Those  who  did 
not  she  ignored.   .  .  . 

Then  there  was  Lord  Ronald  Engleton,  an  or- 
phan brought  up  in  Paris,  a  would-be  decadent, 
a  dabbler  in  all  modern  iniquities,  redeemed  from 
folly  only  by  a  certain  not  altogether  wholesome 
cleverness,  yet  with  a  disposition  which  sometimes 
gained  for  him  friends  in  most  unlikely  quarters. 
He  had  excellent  qualities,  which  he  did  his  best 
to  conceal ;  impulses  which  he  was  continually 
stifling. 

By  his  side  sat  Forrest,  the  Sphynx,  more  than 
middle-aged,  a  man  who  had  wandered  all  over 
the  world,  who  had  tried  many  things  without  ever 
achieving  prosperity,  and  who  was  searching  al- 
ways, with  tired  eyes,   for  some  new  method  of 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      45 

clothing  and  feeding  himself  upon  an  income  of 
less  than  nothing  a  year.  He  had  met  the  Princess 
at  Marienbad  years  ago,  and  silently  took  his  place 
in  her  suite.  Why,  no  one  seemed  to  know,  not 
even  at  first  the  Princess  herself,  who  thought  him 
chic,  and  adored  what  she  could  not  understand. 
Curious  flotsam  and  jetsam,  these  four,  of  society 
which  had  something  of  a  Continental  flavour; 
personages,  every  one  of  them,  with  claim  to  recog- 
nition, but  without  any  noticeable  hall-mark.  .  .  . 
There  remained  the  girl,  Jeanne  herself,  half 
behind  the  curtain  now,  her  head  thrust  forward, 
her  beautiful  eyes  contracted  with  the  effort  to 
penetrate  that  veil  of  darkness.  One  gift  at  least 
she  seemed  to  have  borrowed  from  the  woman  who 
gambled  with  life  as  easily  and  readily  as  with  the 
cards  which  fell  from  her  jewelled  fingers.  In  her 
face,  although  it  was  still  the  face  of  a  child,  there 
was  the  same  inscrutable  expression,  the  same  calm 
languor  of  one  who  takes  and  receives  what  life 
offers  with  the  indifference  of  the  cynic,  or  the  im- 
perturbability of  the  philosopher.  There  was  little 
of  the  joy  or  the  anticipation  of  youth  there,  and 
yet,  behind  the  eyes,  as  they  looked  out  into  the 
darkness,  there  was  something  —  some  such  effort, 
perhaps,  as  one  seeking  to  penetrate  the  darkness 
of  life  must  needs  show.  And  as  she  looked,  the 
white,    living   breakers   gradually    resolved   them- 


46        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

selves  out  of  the  dark,  thin  filmy  phosphorescence, 
and  the  roar  of  the  lashed  sea  broke  like  thunder 
upon  the  pebbled  beach.  She  leaned  a  little  more 
forward,  carried  away  with  her  fancy  —  that  the 
shrill  grinding  of  the  pebbles  was  indeed  the 
scream  of  human  voices  in  pain! 


CHAPTER   VI 

With  the  coming  of  dawn  the  storm  passed 
away  northwards,  across  a  sea  snow-flecked  and 
still  panting  with  its  fury,  and  leaving  behind  many 
traces  of  its  violence,  even  upon  these  waste  and 
empty  places.  A  lurid  sunrise  gave  little  promise 
of  better  weather,  but  by  six  o'clock  the  wind  had 
fallen,  and  the  full  tide  was  swelling  the  creeks. 
On  a  sand-bank,  far  down  amongst  the  marshes, 
Jeanne  stood  hatless,  with  her  hair  streaming  in 
the  breeze,  her  face  turned  seaward,  her  eyes  full 
of  an  unexpected  joy.  Everywhere  she  saw  traces 
of  the  havoc  wrought  in  the  night.  The  tall  rushes 
lay  broken  and  prostrate  upon  the  ground;  the 
beach  was  strewn  with  timber  from  the  breaking 
up  of  an  ancient  wreck.  Eyes  more  accustomed 
than  hers  to  the  outline  of  the  country  could  have 
seen  inland  dismantled  cottages  and  unroofed 
sheds,  groups  of  still  frightened  and  restive  cattle, 
a  snapped  flagstaff,  a  fallen  tree.  But  Jeanne  knew 
none  of  these  things.  Her  face  was  turned  towards 
the  ocean  and  the  rising  sun.  She  felt  the  sting 
of  the  sea  wind  upon  her  cheeks,  all  the  nameless 


43        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

exhilaration  of  the  early  morning  sweetness.  Far 
out  seaward  the  long  breakers,  snow-flecked  and 
white  crested,  came  rolling  in  with  a  long,  monoto- 
nous murmur  toward  the  land.  Above,  the  grey 
sky  was  changing  into  blue.  Almost  directly  over 
her  head,  rising  higher  and  higher  in  little  circles, 
a  lark  was  singing.  Jeanne  half  closed  her  eyes 
and  stood  still,  engrossed  by  the  unexpected  beauty 
of  her  surroundings.  Then  suddenly  a  voice  came 
travelling  to  her  from  across  the  marshes. 

She  turned  round  unwillingly,  and  with  a  vague 
feeling  of  irritation  against  this  interruption,  which 
seemed  to  her  so  inopportune,  and  in  turning  round 
she  realized  at  once  that  her  period  of  absorption 
must  have  lasted  a  good  deal  longer  than  she  had 
had  any  idea  of.  She  had  walked  straight  across 
the  marshes  towards  the  little  hillock  on  which 
she  stood,  but  the  way  by  which  she  had  come  was 
no  longer  visible.  The  swelling  tide  had  circled 
round  through  some  unseen  channel,  and  was  creep- 
ing now  into  the  land  by  many  creeks  and  narrow 
ways.  She  herself  was  upon  an  island,  cut  off  from 
the  dry  land  by  a  smoothly  flowing  tidal  way  more 
than  twenty  yards  across.  Along  it  a  man  in  a 
flat-bottomed  boat  was  punting  his  way  towards 
her.  She  stood  and  waited  for  him,  admiring  his 
height,  and  the  long  powerful  strokes  with  which 
he  propelled  his  clumsy  craft.     He  was  very  tall, 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      49 

and  against  the  flat  background  his  height  seemed 
almost  abnormal.  As  soon  as  he  had  attracted  her 
attention  he  ceased  to  shout,  and  devoted  all  his 
attention  to  reaching  her  quickly.  Nevertheless, 
the  salt  water  was  within  a  few  feet  of  her  when 
he  drove  his  pole  into  the  bottom,  and  brought  the 
punt  to  a  momentary  standstill.  She  looked  down 
at  him,  smiling. 

"  Shall  I  get  in?  "she  asked. 

"  Unless  you  are  thinking  of  swimming  back," 
he  answered  drily,  "  it  would  be  as  well." 

She  lifted  her  skirts  a  little,  and  laughed  at  the 
inappropriateness  of  her  thin  shoes  and  open-work 
stockings.  Andrew  de  la  Borne  held  out  his  strong 
hand,  and  she  sprang  lightly  on  to  the  broad  seat. 

"  It  is  very  nice  of  you,"  she  said,  with  her  slight 
foreign  accent,  "  to  come  and  fetch  me.  Should 
I  have  been  drowned?  " 

"No!"  he  answered.  "  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  spot  where  you  were  standing  is  not  often  alto- 
gether submerged.  You  might  have  been  a  pris- 
oner for  a  few  hours.  Perhaps  as  the  tide  is  going 
to  be  high,  your  feet  would  have  been  wet.  But 
there  was  no  danger." 

She  settled  down  as  comfortably  as  possible  in 
the  awkward  seat. 

11  After  all,  then,"  she  said,  "  this  is  not  a  real 
adventure.    Where  are  you  going  to  take  me  to?  ' 


60        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

"  I  can  only  take  you,"  he  answered,  "  to  the 
village.    I  suppose  you  came  from  the  Hall?" 

"  Yes !  "  she  answered.  "  I  walked  straight 
across  from  the  gate.  I  never  thought  about  the 
tide  coming  up  here." 

"  You  will  have  to  walk  back  by  the  road,"  he 
answered.  "  It  is  a  good  deal  further  round,  but 
there  is  no  other  way." 

She  hung  her  hand  over  the  side,  rejoicing  in  the 
touch  of  the  cool  soft  water. 

"  That,"  she  answered,  "  does  not  matter  at  all. 
It  is  very  early  still,  and  I  do  not  fancy  that  any  one 
will  be  up  yet  for  several  hours." 

He  made  no  further  attempt  at  conversation, 
devoting  himself  entirely  to  the  task  of  steering 
and  propelling  his  clumsy  craft  along  the  narrow 
way.  She  found  herself  watching  him  with  some 
curiosity.  It  had  never  occurred  to  her  to  doubt 
at  first  but  that  he  was  some  fisherman  from  the 
village,  for  he  wrore  a  rough  jersey  and  a  pair 
of  trousers  tucked  into  sea-boots.  His  face  was 
bronzed,  and  his  hands  were  large  and  brown. 
Nevertheless  she  saw  that  his  features  were  good, 
and  his  voice,  though  he  spoke  the  dialect  of  the 
country,  had  about  it  some  quality  which  she  was 
not  slow  to  recognize. 

"Who  are  you?"  she  asked,  a  little  curiously. 
"  Do  you  live  in  the  village?  " 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      51 

He  looked  down  at  her  with  a  faint  smile. 

"  I  live  in  the  village,"  he  answered,  "  and  my 
name  is  Andrew." 

"  Are  you  a  fisherman?  "  she  asked. 

"  Certainly,"  he  answered  gravely.  "  We  are 
all  fishermen  here." 

She  was  not  altogether  satisfied.  He  spoke  to 
her  easily,  and  without  any  sort  of  embarrassment. 
His  words  were  civil  enough,  and  yet  he  had  more 
the  air  of  one  addressing  an  equal  than  a  villager 
who  is  able  to  be  of  service  to  some  one  in  an  alto- 
gether different  social  sphere. 

"  It  was  very  fortunate  for  me,"  she  said,  "  that 
you  saw  me.  Are  you  up  at  this  hour  every  morn- 
ing?" 

"  Generally,"  he  answered.  "  I  was  thinking  of 
fishing,  higher  up  in  the  reaches  there." 

"  I  am  sorry,"  she  said,  "  that  I  spoiled  your 
sport." 

He  did  not  answer  at  once.  He,  in  his  turn,  was 
looking  at  her.  In  her  tailor-made  gown,  short  and 
fashionably  cut,  her  silk  stockings  and  high-heeled 
shoes,  she  certainly  seemed  far  indeed  removed 
from  any  of  the  women  of  those  parts.  Her  dark 
hair  was  arranged  after  a  fashion  that  was  strange 
to  him.  Her  delicately  pale  skin,  her  deep  grey 
eyes,  and  unusually  scarlet  lips  were  all  indications 
of  her  foreign  extraction.    He  looked  at  her  long 


52        JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES 

and  searchingly.     This  was  the  girl,  then,  whom 
his  brother  was  hoping  to  marry. 

"You  are  not  English,"  he  remarked,  a  little 
abruptly. 

She  shook  her  head. 

'  My  father  was  a  Portuguese,"  she  said,  "  and 
my  mother  French.  I  was  born  in  England, 
though.  You,  I  suppose,  have  lived  here  all  your 
life?" 

"  All  my  life,"  he  repeated.  "  We  villagers,  you 
see,  have  not  much  opportunity  for  travel." 

"  But  I  am  not  sure,"  she  said,  looking  at  him 
a  little  doubtfully,  "  that  you  are  a  villager." 

"  I  can  assure  you,"  he  answered,  "  that  there 
is  no  doubt  whatever  about  it.  Can  you  see  out 
yonder  a  little  house  on  the  island  there?  " 

She  followed  his  outstretched  finger. 

"  Of  course  I  can,"  she  answered.  "  Is  that 
your  home?  " 

He  nodded. 

"  I  am  there  most  of  my  time,"  he  answered. 

11  It  looks  charming,"  she  said,  a  little  doubt- 
fully, "  but  isn't  it  lonely?  " 

He  shrugged  his  shoulders. 

"  Perhaps,"  he  answered.  "  I  am  only  ten 
minutes'  sail  from  the  mainland,  though." 

She  looked  again  at  the  house,  long  and  low, 
with  its  plaster  walls  bare  of  any  creeping  thing. 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      53 

"  It  must  be  rather  fascinating,"  she  admitted, 
"  to  live  upon  an  island.    Are  you  married?  " 

"  No  !  "  he  answered. 

"  Do  you  mean  that  you  live  quite  alone?  "  she 
asked. 

He  smiled  down  upon  her  as  one  might  smile  at 
an  inquisitive  child. 

"I  have  a  ser  —  some  one  to  look  after  me," 
he  said.  "  Except  for  that  I  am  quite  alone.  I  am 
going  to  set  you  ashore  here.  You  see  those  tele- 
graph posts?  That  is  the  road  which  leads  direct 
to  the  Hall." 

She  was  still  looking  at  the  island,  watching  the 
waves  break  against  a  little  stretch  of  pebbly 
beach. 

"  I  should  like  very  much,"  she  said,  "  to  see 
that  house.     Can  you  not  take  me  out  there?  " 

He  shook  his  head. 

"  We  could  not  get  so  far  in  this  punt,"  he  said, 
"  and  my  sailing  boat  is  up  at  the  village  quay, 
more  than  a  mile  away." 

She  frowned  a  little.  She  was  not  used  to  having 
any  request  of  hers  disregarded. 

"  Could  we  not  go  to  the  village,"  she  asked, 
"  and  change  into  your  boat?  " 

He  shook  his  head. 

"  I  am  going  fishing,"  he  said,  "  in  a  different 
direction.    Allow  me." 


54        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

He  stepped  on  to  land  and  lifted  her  out.  She 
hesitated  for  a  moment  and  felt  for  her 
purse. 

"  You  must  let  me  recompense  you,"  she  said 
coldly,  "  for  the  time  you  have  lost  in  coming  to 
my  assistance." 

He  looked  down  at  her,  and  again  she  had  an 
uncomfortable  sense  that  notwithstanding  his  rude 
clothes  and  country  dialect,  this  man  was  no  ordi- 
nary villager.  He  said  nothing,  however,  until  she 
produced  her  purse,  and  held  out  a  little  tentatively 
two  half-crowns. 

"  You  are  very  kind,"  he  said.  "  I  will  take  one 
if  you  will  allow  me.  That  is  quite  sufficient.  You 
see  the  Hall  behind  the  trees  there.  You  cannot 
miss  your  way,  I  think,  and  if  you  will  take  my 
advice  you  will  not  wander  about  in  the  marshes 
here  except  at  high  tide.  The  sea  comes  in  to  the 
most  unexpected  places,  and  very  quickly,  too, 
sometimes.     Good  morning!  " 

"  Good  morning,  and  thank  you  very  much," 
she  answered,  turning  away  toward  the  road. 


Cecil  de  la  Borne  was  standing  at  the  end  of  the 
drive  when  she  appeared,  a  telescope  in  his  hand. 
He  came  hastily  down  the  road  to  meet  her,  a  very 
slim    and    elegant    figure    in    his    well-cut    flannel 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      55 

clothes,  smoothly  brushed  hair,  and  irreproachable 
tie. 

"  My  dear  Miss  Jeanne,"  he  exclaimed,  "  I  have 
only  just  heard  that  you  were  out.  Do  you  gen- 
erally get  up  in  the  middle  of  the  night?  " 

She  smiled  a  little  half-heartedly.  It  was  curious 
that  she  found  herself  contrasting  for  a  moment 
this  very  elegant  young  man  with  her  roughly 
dressed  companion  of  a  few  minutes  ago. 

"  To  meet  with  an  adventure  such  as  I  have 
had,"  she  answered,  "  I  would  never  go  to  bed  at 
all.  I  have  been  nearly  drowned,  and  rescued  by 
a  most  marvellous  person.  He  brought  me  back 
to  safety  in  a  flat-bottomed  punt,  and  I  am  quite 
sure  from  the  way  he  stared  at  them  that  he  had 
never  seen  open-work  stockings  before." 

"Are  you  in  earnest?"  Cecil  asked  doubtfully. 

"  Absolutely,"  she  answered.  "  I  was  walking 
there  among  the  marshes,  and  I  suddenly  found 
myself  surrounded  by  the  sea.  The  tide  had  come 
up  behind  me  without  my  noticing.  A  most  mys- 
terious person  came  to  my  rescue.  He  wore  the 
clothes  of  a  fisherman,  and  he  accepted  half  a 
crown,  but  I  have  my  doubts  about  him  even  now. 
He  said  that  his  name  was  Mr.  Andrew." 

Cecil  opened  the  gate  and  they  walked  up 
towards  the  house.  A  slight  frown  had  appeared 
upon  his  forehead. 


56        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

"  Do  you  know  him?  "  she  asked. 

"  I  know  who  he  is,"  he  answered.  "  He  is  a 
queer  sort  of  fellow,  lives  all  alone,  and  is  a  bit 
cranky,  they  say.  Come  in  and  have  some  break- 
fast. I  don't  suppose  that  any  one  else  will  be 
down  for  ages." 

She  shook  her  head. 

"  I  will  send  my  woman  down  for  some  coffee," 
she  answered.  "  I  am  going  upstairs  to  change. 
I  am  just  a  little  wet,  and  I  must  try  and  find  some 
thicker  shoes." 

Cecil  sighed. 

"  One  sees  so  little  of  you,"  he  murmured,  "  and 
I  was  looking  forward  to  a  tete-a-tete  breakfast." 

She  shook  her  head  as  she  left  him  in  the  hall. 

"  I  couldn't  think  of  it,"  she  declared.  "  I'll 
appear  with  the  others  later  on.  Please  find  out 
all  you  can  about  Mr.  Andrew  and  tell  me." 

Cecil  turned  away,  and  his  face  grew  darker  as 
he  crossed  the  hall. 

"  If  Andrew  interferes  this  time,"  he  muttered, 
"  there  will  be  trouble !  " 


CHAPTER   VII 

The  Princess  appeared  for  luncheon  and  de- 
clared herself  to  be  in  a  remarkably  good  humour. 

"  My  dear  Cecil,"  she  said,  helping  herself  to 
an  ortolan  in  aspic,  "  I  like  your  climate  and  I  like 
your  chef.  I  had  my  window  open  for  at  least  ten 
minutes,  and  the  sea  air  has  given  me  quite  an 
appetite.  I  have  serious  thoughts  of  embracing  the 
simple  life." 

"  You  could  scarcely,"  Cecil  de  la  Borne  an- 
swered, "  come  to  a  better  place  for  your  first 
essay.  I  will  guarantee  that  life  is  sufficiently  sim- 
ple here  for  any  one.  I  have  no  neighbours,  no 
society  to  offer  you,  no  distractions  of  any  sort. 
Still,  I  warned  you  before  you  came." 

"  Don't  be  absurd,"  the  Princess  declared. 
"  You  have  the  sea  almost  at  your  front  door,  and 
I  adore  the  sea.  If  you  have  a  nice  large  boat  I 
should  like  to  go  for  a  sail." 

Cecil  looked  at  her  with  upraised  eyebrows. 

"  If  you  are  serious,"  he  said,  "  no  doubt  we  can 
find  the  boat." 

"  I  am  absolutely  serious,"  the  Princess  declared. 


58        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

"  I  feel  that  this  is  exactly  what  my  system  re- 
quired. I  should  like  to  sit  in  a  comfortable  cush- 
ioned seat  and  sail  somewhere.  If  possible,  I 
should  like  you  men  to  catch  things  from  the  side 
of  the  boat." 

"  You  will  get  sunburnt,"  Lord  Ronald  re- 
marked drily;  "  perhaps  even  freckled." 

"  Adorable !  "  the  Princess  declared.  "  A  touch 
of  sunburn  would  be  quite  becoming.  It  is  such 
an  excellent  foundation  to  build  a  complexion  upon. 
Jeanne  is  quite  enchanted  with  the  place.  She's 
had  adventures  already,  and  been  rescued  from 
drowning  by  a  marvellous  person,  who  wore  his 
trousers  tucked  into  his  boots  and  found  fault  with 
her  shoes  and  stockings.  She  has  promised  to  show 
me  the  place  after  luncheon,  and  I  am  going  to 
stand  there  myself  and  see  if  anything  happens." 

"  You  will  get  your  feet  very  wet,"  Cecil  de- 
clared. 

"  And  sand  inside  your  shoes,"  Forrest  re- 
marked. 

"  These,"  the  Princess  declared,  "  are  trifles 
compared  with  the  delightful  sensation  of  experi- 
encing a  real  adventure.  In  any  case  we  must  sail 
one  afternoon,  Cecil.  I  insist  upon  it.  We  will 
not  play  bridge  until  after  dinner.  My  luck  last 
night  was  abominable.  Oh,  you  needn't  look  at  me 
like  that,"  she  added  to  Cecil.     "  I  know  I  won. 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      59 

but  that  was  an  accident.  I  had  bad  cards  all  the 
time,  and  I  only  won  because  you  others  had  worse. 
Please  ring  the  bell,  Mr.  Host,  and  see  about  the 
boat." 

"  Really,"  Cecil  remarked,  as  he  called  the  but- 
ler and  gave  him  some  instructions,  "  I  had  no  idea 
that  I  was  going  to  entertain  such  enterprising 
guests." 

"Oh,  there  are  lots  of  things  I  mean  to  do!  ' 
the  Princess  declared.    "  I  am  seriously  thinking  of 
going  shrimping.      I   suppose   there   are   shrimps 
here,  and  I  should  love  to  tuck  up  my  skirts  and 
carry  a  big  net,  like  somebody's  picture." 

"  Perhaps,"  Cecil  suggested,  "  you  would  like  to 
try  the  golf  links.  I  believe  there  are  some  quite 
decent  ones  not  far  away." 

The  Princess  shook  her  head. 

"  No!  "  she  answered.  "  Golf  is  too  civilized  a 
game.  We  will  go  out  in  a  fishing  boat  with  plenty 
of  cushions,  and  we  will  try  to  catch  fish.  I  know 
that  Jeanne  will  love  it,  and  that  you  others  will 
hate  it.  Between  the  two  of  you  it  should  be  amus- 
ing." 

;  Very  well,"  Cecil  declared,  with  an  air  of  res- 
ignation, "  whatever  happens  will  be  upon  your 
own  shoulders.  There  is  a  boat  in  the  village 
which  we  can  have.  I  will  have  it  brought  up  to 
our  own  quay  in   an  hour's  time.     If  the  worst 


60        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

comes  to  the  worst,  and  we  are  bored  to  death, 
we  can  play  bridge  on  the  way." 

"  There  will  be  no  cards  upon  the  boat,"  the 
Princess  declared  decidedly.  "  I  forbid  them.  We 
are  going  to  lounge  and  look  at  the  sea  and  get 
sunburnt.  Jeanne  can  wear  a  veil  if  she  likes.  I 
shall  not." 

Cecil  shrugged  his  shoulders. 

"  Very  well,"  he  said.  "  Whatever  happens, 
don't  blame  me." 


The  Princess  had  her  way  and  behaved  like  a 
schoolgirl.  She  sat  in  the  most  comfortable  place, 
surrounded  with  a  multitude  of  cushions,  with  her 
tiny  Japanese  spaniel  in  her  arms,  and  a  box  of 
French  bonbons  by  her  side.  Jeanne  stood  in  the 
bows,  bareheaded  and  happy.  Lord  Ronald,  who 
was  feeling  a  little  sea-sick,  sat  at  her  feet. 

"  I  had  no  idea,"  he  remarked  plaintively,  "  that 
your  mother  was  capable  of  such  crudities.  If  I 
had  known,  I  certainly  would  not  have  trusted  my- 
self to  such  a  party.  This  sea  air  is  hateful.  It 
has  tarnished  my  cigarette-case  already,  and  one's 
nails  will  not  be  fit  to  be  seen.  To  be  out  of  doors 
like  this  is  worse  than  drinking  unfiltered  water." 

Jeanne  smiled  down  at  him  a  little  contemptu- 
ously. 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      61 

"  You  are  a  child  of  the  cities,  Lord  Ronald," 
she  remarked.  "  Next  year  I  am  going  to  buy  a 
yacht  myself,  but  I  shall  not  ask  you  to  come  with 
us." 

Lord  Ronald  groaned. 

"  That  is  the  worst  of  all  heiresses,"  he 
said.  "  You  have  such  queer  tastes.  I  shall 
never  summon  up  my  courage  to  propose  to 
you." 

"  There  is  always  leap  year,"  Jeanne  reminded 
him. 

"What  a  bewildering  suggestion!"  he  mur- 
mared,  looking  uncomfortably  over  the  side  of  the 
boat.  "  I  say,  Forrest,  what  do  you  think  of  this 
sort  of  thing?  " 

"  Idyllic!  "  Forrest  declared  cynically.  "  To  sit 
upon  a  hard  plank  and  to  have  one's  digestion  un- 
mercifully interfered  with  like  this  is  unqualified 
rapture.  If  only  there  were  cabins  one  might 
sleep." 

"  There  will  be  cabins  on  my  yacht,"  Jeanne 
declared  laughing,  "  but  I  shall  not  ask  either  of 
you.  You  are  both  of  you  knights  of  the  candle 
light.  I  shall  get  some  great  strong  fisherman  to 
be  captain,  and  I  shall  go  round  the  world  and  for- 
get the  days  and  the  months." 

Forrest  shivered  slightly. 

"  The  country,"   he  remarked  to  the   Princess, 


62        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 
'  is  having  a  terrible  effect  upon  your  stepdaugh- 


ter." 


The  Princess  nodded  and  thrust  a  bonbon  into 
the  languid  jaws  of  the  dog  she  was  holding. 

"  It  is  my  fault,"  she  declared.  "  It  is  I  who 
have  set  this  fashion.  It  was  a  whim,  and  I  am 
tired  of  it.     Tell  our  host  that  we  will  go  back." 

They  tacked  a  few  minutes  later,  and  swept 
shoreward.  Jeanne,  still  standing  in  the  bows,  was 
gazing  steadfastly  upon  the  little  island  at  the  en- 
trance of  the  estuary. 

"  I  should  like,"  she  declared,  pointing  it  out  to 
Cecil,  "  to  land  there  and  have  some  tea." 

Cecil  looked  at  her  doubtfully. 

"  We  shall  be  home  in  a  little  more  than  an 
hour,"  he  said,  "  and  I  don't  suppose  we  could  get 
any  tea  there,  even  if  we  were  able  to  land." 

"  I  have  a  conviction  that  we  should,"  Jeanne 
declared.  "  Mother,"  she  added,  turning  round  to 
the  older  woman,  "  there  is  an  island  just  ahead 
of  us  with  a  delightful  looking  cottage.  I  believe 
my  preserver  of  this  morning  lives  there.  Wouldn't 
it  be  lovely  to  go  and  beg  him  to  give  us  all  tea?  ' 

"  Charming!  "  the  Princess  declared,  sitting  up 
amongst  her  cushions.  "  I  should  love  to  see  him, 
and  tea  is  the  one  thing  in  the  world  I  want  to 
make  me  happy." 

Cecil  de  la  Borne  stood  silent  for  a  moment  or 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      63 

two,  looking  steadfastly  at  the  whitewashed  cot- 
tage upon  the  island.  It  seemed  impossible,  after 
all,  to  escape  from  Andrew! 

"  The  man  lives  there  alone,  I  believe,"  he  said. 
"  I  don't  suppose  there  is  any  one  to  get  us  tea. 
He  would  only  be  embarrassed  by  our  coming,  and 
not  know  what  to  do." 

Jeanne  smiled  reflectively. 

"  I  do  not  think,"  she  said,  "  that  it  would  be 
easy  to  embarrass  Mr.  Andrew.  However,  if  you 
like  we  will  put  it  off  to  another  afternoon,  on  one 
condition." 

"  Let  me  hear  the  condition  at  any  rate,"  Cecil 
asked. 

"  That  we  go  straight  back,  and  that  you  show 
us  that  subterranean  passage,"  Jeanne  declared. 

"  Agreed !  "  Cecil  answered.  "  I  warn  you  that 
you  will  find  it  only  damp  and  mouldy  and  depress- 
ing, but  you  shall  certainly  see  it." 

The  girl  moved  toward  the  side  of  the  boat,  and 
stood  leaning  over,  with  her  eyes  fixed  upon  the 
island.  Standing  on  the  small  grass  plot  in  front 
of  the  cottage  she  could  see  the  tall  figure  of  a  man 
with  his  face  turned  toward  them.  A  faint  smile 
parted  her  lips  as  she  watched.  She  took  out  her 
handkerchief  and  waved  it.  The  man  for  a  mo- 
ment stood  motionless,  and  then  raising  his  cap, 
held  it  for  a  moment  above  his  head.    The  boat 


64        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

sped  on,  and  very  soon  they  were  out  of  sight.  She 
stood  there,  however,  watching,  until  they  had 
rounded  the  sandy  spit  and  entered  the  creek  which 
led  into  the  harbour.  There  was  something  un- 
usually piquant  to  her  in  the  thought  of  that  greet- 
ing with  the  man,  whose  response  to  it  had  been  so 
unwilling,  almost  ungracious. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

11  Not  another  step !  "  the  Princess  declared. 
"  I  am  going  back  at  once." 

"  I  too,"  Forrest  declared.  "  Your  smuggling 
ancestors,  my  dear  De  la  Borne,  must  indeed  have 
loved  adventure,  if  they  spent  much  of  their  time 
crawling  about  here  like  rats." 

"  As  you  will,"  Cecil  answered.  "  The  expedi- 
tion is  Miss  Jeanne's,  not  mine." 

"  And  I  am  going  on,"  Jeanne  declared.  "  I 
want  to  see  where  we  come  out  on  the  beach." 

"  This  way,  then,"  Cecil  said.  "  You  need  not 
be  afraid  to  walk  upright.  The  roof  is  six  feet 
high  all  the  way.  You  must  tread  carefully, 
though.  There  are  plenty  of  holes  and  stones 
about." 

The  Princess  and  Forrest  disappeared.  Jeanne, 
with  her  skirts  held  high  in  one  hand,  and  an  elec- 
tric torch  in  the  other,  followed  Cecil  slowly  along 
the  gloomy  way.  The  wTalls  were  oozing  with 
damp,  glistening  patches,  like  illuminated  salt 
stains,  and  queer  fungi  started  out  from  unexpected 
places.    Sometimes  their  footsteps  fell  on  the  rock, 


66        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

awaking  strange  echoes  down  the  gallery.  Some- 
times they  sank,  deep  into  the  sand.  Cecil  looked 
often  behind,  and  once  held  out  his  hand  to  help 
his  companion  over  a  difficult  place.  At  last  he 
paused,  and  she  heard  him  struggling  to  turn  a  key 
in  a  great  worm-eaten  door  on  their  right. 

"  This  is  the  room,"  he  explained,  "  where  they 
held  their  meetings,  and  where  the  stuff  was  hidden. 
It  was  used  for  more  than  twenty  years,  and  the 
Customs'  people  never  seemed  to  have  had  even 
an  inkling  of  its  existence." 

He  pushed  the  door  open  with  difficulty.  They 
found  themselves  in  a  gloomy  chamber,  with 
vaulted  roof  and  stone  floor.  A  faint  streak  of 
daylight  from  an  opening  somewhere  in  the  roof, 
partially  lit  the  place.  Here,  too,  the  walls  were 
damp  and  the  odour  appalling.  There  were  some 
fragments  of  broken  barrels  at  one  end,  and  an 
oak  table  in  the  middle  of  the  floor.  Jeanne 
looked  round  and  shivered. 

"  Let  us  go  on  to  the  end,"  she  said. 

Cecil  nodded,  and  they  made  their  way  on  down 
the  passage. 

"  The  roof  is  getting  lower  now,"  he  said. 
"  You  had  better  stoop  a  little." 

She  stopped  short. 

"What  is  that?"  she  asked  fearfully. 

A  sound  like  rolling  thunder,  faint  at  first,  but 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      67 

growing  more  distinct  at  every  step,  broke  the  chill 
silence  of  the  place. 

"  The  sea,"  Cecil  answered.  "  We  are  getting 
near  to  the  beach." 

Jeanne  nodded  and  crept  on.  Louder  and 
louder  the  sound  seemed  to  become,  until  at  last 
she  paused,  half  terrified. 

"  Where  are  we?  "  she  gasped.  "  It  sounds  as 
though  the  sea  were  right  over  our  heads." 

Cecil  shook,  his  head. 

"  It  is  an  illusion,"  he  said.  "  The  sound  comes 
from  the  air-hole  there.  We  are  forty  yards  from 
the  cliff  still." 

They  crept  on,  until  at  last,  after  a  turn  in  the 
gallery,  they  saw  a  faint  glimmering  of  light.  A 
few  more  yards  and  they  came  to  a  standstill. 

"  The  entrance  is  boarded  up,  you  see,"  Cecil 
said,  "  but  you  can  see  through  the  chinks.  There 
is  the  sea  just  below,  and  the  rope  ladder  used  to 
hang  from  these  staples." 

She  looked  out.  Sheer  below  was  the  sea,  break- 
ing upon  the  rocks  and  sending  a  torrent  of  spray 
into  the  air  with  every  wave. 

"We  can't  get  out  this  way,  then?"  she 
asked. 

He  shook  his  head. 

"  No,  we  should  want  a  rope  ladder,"  he  said, 
"  and  a  boat.    Have  you  seen  enough?  " 


68        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

"  More  than  enough,"  Jeanne  answered.  "  Let 
us  get  back." 

Jeanne  sank  into  a  garden  seat  a  few  minutes 
later  with  a  little  exclamation  of  relief. 

"  Never,"  she  declared,  "  have  I  appreciated 
fresh  air  so  much.  I  think,  Mr.  De  la  Borne,  that 
smuggling,  though  it  was  a  very  romantic  profes- 
sion, must  have  had  its  unpleasant  side." 

Cecil  nodded. 

"  There  were  more  air-holes  in  those  days,"  he 
said,  "  but  our  ancestors  were  a  tougher  race  than 
we.  Coarse  brutes,  most  of  them,  I  imagine,"  he 
added,  lighting  a  cigarette.  "  Drank  beer  for 
breakfast,  and  smoked  clay  pipes  before  meals. 
Fancy  if  one  had  their  constitutions  and  our 
tastes !  " 

"  The  two  would  scarcely  go  together,"  Jeanne 
remarked.  "  But  after  all  I  should  think  that 
absinthe  and  cigarettes  are  more  destructive.  I 
am  dying  for  some  tea.  Let  us  go  in  and  find  the 
others." 

Tea  was  set  out  in  the  hall,  but  only  Engleton 
was  there.  Forrest  and  the  Princess  were  walking 
slowly  up  and  down  the  avenue. 

"  I  imagine,"  the  latter  was  saying  drily,  "  that 
we  are  fairly  free  from  eavesdroppers  here.  Now 
tell  me  what  it  is  that  you  have  to  say,  Nigel." 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      69 

"  I  am  bothered  about  Engleton,"  Forrest  said. 
"  I  didn't  like  his  insisting  upon  cutting  last  night. 
What  do  you  think  he  meant  by  it?  " 

The  Princess  shrugged  her  shoulders. 

"  Nothing  at  all,"  she  answered.  "  He  may 
have  thought  that  we  were  lucky  together,  and  of 
course  he  knows  that  you  are  the  best  player. 
There  is  no  reason  why  he  should  be  willing  to  play 
with  Cecil  de  la  Borne,  when  by  cutting  with  you 
he  would  be  more  likely  to  win." 

"  You  think  that  that  is  all?  "  Forrest  asked. 

"  I  think  so,"  the  Princess  answered.  '  What 
had  you  in  your  mind?  " 

"  I     wondered,"     Forrest     said     thoughtfully, 

"  whether  he  had  heard  any  of  the  gossip  at  the 

club." 

The  Princess  frowned  impatiently. 

"  For  Heaven's  sake,  don't  be  imaginative, 
Nigel !  "  she  declared.  "  If  you  give  way  like  this 
you  will  lose  your  nerve  in  no  time." 

"  Very  well,"  Forrest  said.  "  Let  us  take  it  for 
granted,  then,  that  he  did  it  only  because  he  pre- 
ferred to  play  with  me  to  playing  against  me. 
What  is  to  become  of  our  little  scheme  if  we  cut  as 
we  did  last  night  all  the  time?" 

The  Princess  smiled. 

"  You  ought  to  be  able  to  manage  that,"  she 
said  carelessly.     "  You  are  so  good  at  card  tricks 


70        JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES 

that  you  should  be  able  to  get  an  ace  when  you 
want  it.  I  always  cut  third  from  the  end,  as  you 
know." 

"  That's  all  very  well,"  Forrest  answered,  "  but 
we  can't  go  on  cutting  two  aces  all  the  time.  I 
ran  it  pretty  fine  last  night,  when  for  the  second 
time  I  gave  you  a  three  or  a  four,  and  drew  a  two 
myself.  But  he  seems  to  have  the  devil's  own  luck. 
They  cut  under  us,  as  you  know." 

The  Princess  looked  up  toward  the  house.  She 
had  seen  Jeanne  and  Cecil  appear. 

"  Those  people  are  back  from  their  underground 
pilgrimage,"  she  remarked.  "  Have  you  anything 
definite   to   suggest?     If  not,   we   had   better   go 


in." 


'  There  is  only  one  way,  Ena,"  Forrest  said, 
"  in  which  we  could  improve  matters." 

"  And  what  is  that?  "  she  asked  quickly. 

"  Don't  you  think  we  could  get  our  host  in?" 

The  Princess  was  silent  for  several  moments. 

"  It  is  a  little  dangerous,  I  am  afraid,"  she 
said. 

1  I  don't  see  why,"  Forrest  answered.  "  If  he 
were  once  in  he'd  have  to  hold  his  tongue,  and  you 
can  do  just  what  you  like  with  him.  He  seems  to 
me  to  be  just  one  of  those  pulpy  sort  of  persons 
whom  you  could  persuade  into  a  thing  before  he 
had  had  time  to  think  about  it." 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      71 

"  I  will  drop  him  a  hint  if  you  like,"  the  Prin- 
cess said  thoughtfully,  "  and  see  how  he  takes  it. 
Are  you  sure  that  the  game  is  worth  the  can- 
dle?" 

'  Absolutely,"  Forrest  answered  eagerly.  "  I 
saw  Engleton  drop  two  thousand  playing  baccarat 
one  night,  and  he  never  turned  a  hair.  I  wasn't 
playing,  worse  luck." 

"  If  I  can  get  Cecil  alone  before  dinner,"  the 
Princess  said,  "  I  will  sound  him.  I  think  we  had 
better  go  back  now.  We  are  a  little  old  for  ro- 
mantic wanderings,  and  the  wind  is  beginning  to 
disarrange  my  hair." 

"  See  what  you  can  do  with  him,  then,"  Forrest 
said,  as  they  retraced  their  steps.  "  I'll  call  in  and 
hear  if  you've  anything  to  tell  me  on  my  way  down 
for  dinner." 

The  Princess  nodded.  They  entered  the  hall, 
and  Cecil  at  once  drew  an  easy-chair  to  the  tea- 
table. 

'  My  good  people,"  the  Princess  declared,  "  I 
am  famished.  Your  sea  air,  Cecil,  is  the  most 
wonderful  thing  in  the  world.  For  years  I  have 
not  known  what  it  was  like  to  be  hungry.  Hot 
cakes,  please !  And,  Jeanne,  please  make  my  tea. 
Jeanne  knows  just  how  I  like  it.  Tell  us  about  the 
smuggler's  cave,  Jeanne.  Was  it  really  so  wonder- 
ful?" 


72        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

Jeanne  laughed. 

"  It  was  very,  very  weird  and  very  smelly," 
she  said.  "  I  think  that  you  were  wise  to  turn 
back." 


CHAPTER   IX 

Andrew  came  face  to  face  with  his  brother  in 
the  village  street  on  the  next  morning.  He  looked 
at  him  for  a  moment  in  surprise. 

"  What  have  you  been  doing?  "  he  asked,  drily. 
"Sitting  up  all  night?" 

Cecil  nodded  dejectedly. 

"  Pretty  well,"  he  admitted.  "  We  played 
bridge   till  nearly  five  o'clock." 

"  You  lost,  I  suppose?  "  Andrew  asked. 

"  Yes,  I  lost!  "  Cecil  admitted. 

"  Your  party,"  Andrew  said,  "  does  not  seem  to 
me  to  be  an  unqualified  success." 

"  It  is  not,"  Cecil  admitted.  "  Miss  Le  Mesu- 
rier  has  been  quite  unapproachable  the  last  few 
days.  She's  just  civil  to  me  and  no  more.  She 
isn't  even  half  as  decent  as  she  was  in  town.  I  wish 
I  hadn't  asked  them  here.  It's  cost  a  lot  more 
money  than  we  can  afford,  and  done  no  good  that 
I  can  see." 

Andrew  looked  away  seaward  for  a  moment. 
Was  it  his  fancy,  or  was  there  indeed  a  slim  white 


74        JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES 

figure     coming    across     the     marshes     from     the 

Hall? 

"  Cecil,"  he  said,  "  are  you  quite  sure  that  your 
guests  are  worth  the  trouble  you  have  taken  to 
entertain  them?  I  refer  more  particularly  to  the 
two  men." 

"  They  go  everywhere,"  Cecil  answered.  "  Lord 
Ronald  is  a  bit  of  a  wastrel,  of  course,  and  I  am 
not  very  keen  on  Forrest,  but  we  were  all  together 
when  I  gave  the  invitation,  and  I  couldn't  leave 
them  out." 

Andrew  nodded. 

"  Well,"  he  said,  "  I  should  be  careful  how  I 
played  cards  with  Forrest  if  I  were  you." 

Cecil's  face  grew  even  a  shade  paler. 

"  You  do  not  think,"  he  muttered,  "  that  he 
would  do  anything  that  wasn't  straight?' 

"  On  the  contrary,"  Andrew  answered,  "  I  have 
reason  to  believe  that  he  would.  Isn't  that  one  of 
your  guests  coming?  You  had  better  go  and  meet 
her." 

Andrew  passed  on  his  way,  and  Cecil  walked 
towards  Jeanne.  All  the  time,  though,  she  was 
looking  over  his  shoulder  to  where  Andrew's  tall 
figure  was  disappearing. 

"What  a  nuisance!"  she  pouted.  'I  wanted 
to  see  Mr.  Andrew,  and  directly  I  came  in  sight 
he  hurried  away." 


JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES      75 

"Can  1  give  him  any  message?"  Cecil  asked 
with  faint  irony.  "  He  will  no  doubt  be  up  with 
the  fish  later  in  the  day." 

She  turned  her  back  on  him. 

"  I  am  going  back  to  the  house,"  she  said.  "  I 
did  not  come  out  here  to  walk  with  you." 

"  Considering  that  I  am  your  host,"  he  began  — 

"  You  lose  your  claim  to  consideration  on  that 
score  when  you  remind  me  of  it,"  she  answered. 
"  Really  the  only  man  who  has  not  bored  me  for 
weeks  is  Mr.  Andrew.  You  others  are  all  the 
same.  You  say  the  same  things,  and  you  are  al- 
ways paving  the  way  toward  the  same  end.  I  am 
tired  of  it.    Stop  !  " 

She  turned  suddenly  round. 

"  I  quite  forgot,"  she  said.  "  I  must  go  into  the 
village  after  all.     I  am  going  to  send  a  telegram." 

They  retraced  their  steps  in  silence.  As  they 
entered  the  telegraph-office  Andrew  was  just  leav- 
ing, and  the  postmistress  was  wishing  him  a  re- 
spectful farewell.  He  touched  his  hat  as  the  two 
entered,  and  stepped  on  one  side.  Jeanne,  how- 
ever, held  cut  her  hand. 

"  Mr.  Andrew,"  she  said,  "  I  am  so  glad  to  see 
you.  I  want  to  go  out  again  in  that  great  punt  of 
yours.    Please,  when  can  you  take  me?  " 

"  I  am  afraid,"  Andrew  answered,  "  that  I  am 
rather  busy  just  now.    I  —  " 


76        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

He  stopped  short,  for  something  in  her  face 
perplexed  him.  It  was  impossible  for  her,  of 
course,  to  feel  disappointment  to  that  extent,  and 
yet  she  had  all  the  appearance  of  a  child  about  to 
cry.     He  felt  suddenly  awkward  and  ill  at  ease. 

"  Of  course,"  he  said,  "  if  you  really  care  about 
it,  I  should  be  very  pleased  to  take  you  any  morn- 
ing toward  the  end  of  the  week." 

"  To-morrow  morning,  please,"  she  begged. 

He  glanced  towards  his  brother,  who  shrugged 
his  shoulders. 

"  If  Miss  Le  Mesurier  is  really  inclined  to  go, 
Andrew,"  the  latter  said,  "  I  am  sure  that  you  will 
take  good  care  of  her.  Perhaps  some  of  us  will 
come,  too." 

She  nodded  her  farewells  to  Andrew,  and  turned 
back  with  her  host  toward  the  Hall.  Cecil  looked 
at  her  a  little  curiously.  It  was  certain  that  she 
seemed  in  better  spirits  than  a  short  time  ago. 
What  a  creature  of  caprices ! 

11  Will  you  tell  me,  Mr.  De  la  Borne,"  she  asked, 
"  why  the  postmistress  called  Mr.  Andrew  '  sir '  if 
he  is  only  a  fisherman?  " 

"  Habit,  I  suppose,"  Cecil  answered  carelessly. 
"  They  call  every  one  sir  and  ma'am." 

"  I  am  not  so  sure  that  it  was  habit,"  she  said 
thoughtfully.  "  I  think  that  Mr.  Andrew  is  not 
quite  what  he  represents  himself  to  be.     No  one 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      77 

who  had  not  education  and  experience  of  nice  peo- 
ple could  behave  quite  as  he  does.  Of  course,  he  is 
rough  and  brusque  at  times,  I  know,  but  then  many 
men  are  like  that." 

Cecil  did  not  reply.  A  grey  mist  was  sweeping 
in  from  the  sea,  and  Jeanne  shivered  a  little  as  they 
turned  into  the  avenue. 

"  I  wonder,"  she  said  pensively,  "  why  we  came 
here.  My  mother  as  a  rule  hates  to  go  far  from 
civilization,  and  I  am  sure  Lord  Ronald  is  miser- 
able." 

'  I  think  one  reason  why  your  mother  brought 
you  here,"  Cecil  said  slowly,  "  is  because  she 
wanted  to  give  me  a  chance." 

She  picked  up  her  skirts  and  ran,  ran  so  lightly 
and  swiftly  that  Cecil,  who  was  taken  by  surprise, 
had  no  chance  of  catching  her.  From  the  hall 
door  she  looked  back  at  him,  panting  behind. 

"  Too  many  cigarettes,"  she  laughed.  "  You 
are  out  of  training.  If  you  do  not  mind  you  will 
be  like  Lord  Ronald,  an  old  young  man,  and  I 
would  never  let  any  one  say  the  sort  of  things  you 
were  going  to  say  who  couldn't  catch  me  when 
I  ran  away." 

She  went  laughing  up  the  stairs,  and  Cecil  de  la 
Borne  turned  into  his  study.  The  Princess  was 
playing  patience,  and  the  two  men  were  in  easy- 
chairs. 


78        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

"  At  last ! '  the  Princess  remarked,  throwing 
down  her  cards.  "  My  dear  Cecil,  do  you  real- 
ize that  you  have  kept  us  waiting  nearly  an 
hour?" 

"  I  thought,  perhaps,"  he  answered,  "  that  you 
had  had  enough  bridge." 

"Absurd!"  the  Princess  declared.  "What 
else  is  there  to  do?  Come  and  cut,  and  pray  that 
you  do  not  draw  me  for  a  partner.  My  luck  is 
dead  out — at  patience,  anyhow." 

"  Mine,"  Cecil  remarked,  with  a  hard  little 
laugh,  "  seems  to  be  out  all  round.  Touch  the  bell, 
will  you,  Forrest.  I  must  have  a  brandy  and  soda 
before  I  start  this  beastly  game  again." 

The  Princess  raised  her  eyebrows. 

"  I  trust,"  she  said,  "  that  my  charming  ward 
has  not  been  unkind?  " 

"  Your  charming  ward,"  Cecil  answered,  "  has 
as  many  whims  and  fancies  as  an  elf.  She  yawns 
when  I  talk  to  her,  and  looks  longingly  after  one 
of  my  villagers.    Hang  the  fellow !  " 

"  A  very  superior  villager,"  the  Princess  re- 
marked, "  if  you  mean  Mr.  Andrew." 

Forrest  looked  up,  and  fixed  his  cold  intent  eyes 
upon  his  host. 

"  I  suppose,"  he  said,  "  you  are  sure  that  this 
man  Andrew  is  really  what  he  professes  to  be,  and 
not  a  masquerader?  " 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      79 

"  I  have  known  him,"  Cecil  answered,  "  since  I 
was  old  enough  to  remember  anybody.  He  has 
lived  here  all  his  life,  and  only  been  away  three  or 
four  times." 

They  played  until  the  dressing-bell  rang.  Then 
Cecil  de  la  Borne  rose  from  his  seat  with  a  peevish 
exclamation. 

"  My  luck  seems  dead  out,"  he  said. 

The  Princess  raised  her  eyebrows. 

"  Possibly,  my  dear  boy,"  she  said,  "  but  you 
must  admit  that  you  also  played  abominably.  Your 
last  declaration  of  hearts  was  indefensible,  and 
why  you  led  a  diamond  and  discarded  the  spade 
in  Lord  Ronald's  '  no  trump  '  hand,  Heaven  only 
knows !  " 

"  I  still  think  that  I  was  right,"  Cecil  declared, 
a  little  sullenly. 

The  Princess  said  nothing,  but  turned  toward 
the  door. 

"Any  one  dining  to-night,  Mr.  Host?'  she 
said. 

"  No  one,"  he  answered.  "  To  tell  you  the  truth 
there  is  no  one  to  ask  within  a  dozen  miles,  and 
you  particularly  asked  not  to  be  bothered  with 
meeting  yokels." 

"  Quite  right,"  the  Princess  answered,  "  only  I 
am  getting  a  little  bored,  and  if  you  had  any  yokels 
of  the  Mr.  Andrew  sort,  with  just  a  little  more 


80        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

polish,  they  might  be  entertaining.  You  three 
men  are  getting  deadly  dull." 

"Princess!"  Lord  Ronald  declared  reproach- 
fully. "  How  can  you  say  that?  You  never  give 
any  one  a  chance  to  see  you  until  the  afternoon, 
and  then  we  generally  start  bridge.  One  cannot 
be  brilliantly  entertaining  while  one  is  playing 
cards." 

The  Princess  yawned. 

"  I  never  argue,"  she  said.  "  I  only  state  facts. 
I  am  getting  a  little  bored.  Some  one  must  be 
very  amusing  at  dinner-time  or  I  shall  have  a  head- 
ache." 

She  swept  up  to  her  room. 

"  I  suppose  we'd  better  go  and  change,"  Ce- 
cil remarked,  leading  the  way  out  into  the 
hall. 

Forrest,  who  was  at  the  window,  screwed  his 
eyeglass  in  and  leaned  forward.  A  faint  smile  had 
parted  the  corner  of  his  lips,  and  he  beckoned  to 
Cecil,  who  came  over  at  once  to  his  side.  On  the 
top  of  the  sand-dyke  two  figures  were  walking 
slowly  side  by  side.  Jeanne,  with  the  wind  blowing 
her  skirts  about  her  small  shapely  figure,  was  look- 
ing up  all  the  time  at  the  man  who  walked  by  her 
side,  and  who,  against  the  empty  background  of 
sea  and  sky,  seemed  of  a  stature  almost  gigan- 
tic. 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      81 

"  Quite  an  idyll !  "  Forrest  remarked  with  a 
little  sneer. 

Cecil  bit  his  lip,  and  turned  away  without  a 
word. 


CHAPTER    X 

"  I  don't  think,"  Engleton  said  slowly,  "  that 
I  care  about  playing  any  more  —  just  now." 

The  Princess  yawned  as  she  leaned  back  in  her 
chair.  Both  Forrest  and  De  la  Borne,  who  had 
left  his  place  to  turn  up  one  of  the  lamps,  glanced 
stealthily  round  at  the  speaker. 

'  I  am  not  keen  about  it  myself,"  Forrest  said 
smoothly.  "After  ajl,  though,  it's  only  three 
o'clock." 

Cecil's  fingers  shook,  so  that  his  tinkering  with 
the  lamp  failed,  and  the  room  was  left  almost  in 
darkness.  Forrest,  glad  of  an  excuse  to  leave  his 
place,  went  to  the  great  north  window  and  pulled 
up  the  blind.  A  faint  stream  of  grey  light  stole 
into  the  room.  The  Princess  shrieked,  and  covered 
her  face  with  her  hands. 

"  For  Heaven's  sake,  Nigel,"  she  cried,  "  pull 
that  blind  down!  I  do  not  care  for  these  Rem- 
brandtesque  effects.  Tobacco  ash  and  cards  and 
my  complexion  do  not  look  at  their  best  in  such 
a  crude  light." 

Forrest  obeyed,  and  the  room  for  a  moment  was 
in  darkness.     There  was  a  somewhat  curious  si- 


JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES      83 

lence.  The  Princess  was  breathing  softly  but 
quickly.  When  at  last  the  lamp  burned  up  again, 
every  one  glanced  furtively  toward  the  young  man 
who  was  leaning  back  in  his  chair  with  his  eyes 
fixed  absently  upon  the  table. 

'  Well,  what  is  it  to  be?  "  Forrest  asked,  reseat- 
ing himself.     "  One  more  rubber  or  bed?  ' 

"  I've  lost  a  good  deal  more  than  I  care  to," 
Cecil  remarked  in  a  somewhat  unnatural  tone, 
"  but  I  say  another  brandy  and  soda,  and  one 
more  rubber.  There  are  some  sandwiches  behind 
you,  Engleton." 

"  Thank  you,"  Engleton  answered  without  look- 
ing up.     "  I  am  not  hungry." 

The  Princess  took  up  a  fresh  pack  of  cards,  and 
let  them  fall  idly  through  her  fingers.  Then  she 
took  a  cigarette  from  the  gold  case  which  hung 
from  her  chatelaine,  and  lit  it. 

"  One  more  rubber,  then,"  she  said.  "  After 
that  we  will  go  to  bed." 

The  others  came  toward  the  table,  and  the  Prin- 
cess threw  down  the  cards.  They  all  three  cut. 
Engleton,  however,  did  not  move. 

"  I  think,"  he  said,  "  that  you  did  not  quite  un- 
derstand me.  I  said  that  I  did  not  care  to  play 
any  more." 

"  Three  against  one,"  the  Princess  remarked 
lightly. 


84        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

"Why  not  play  cut-throat,  then?"  Engleton 
remarked.  "  It  would  be  an  excellent  arrange- 
ment." 

"  Why  so?  "  Forrest  asked. 

"  Because  you  could  rob  one  another,"  Engle- 
ton said.     "  It  would  be  interesting  to  watch." 

A  few  seconds  intense  silence  followed  Engle- 
ton's  words.  It  was  the  Princess  who  spoke  first. 
Her  tone  was  composed  but  chilly.  She  looked 
toward  Engleton  with  steady  eyes. 

"  My  dear  Lord  Ronald,"  she  said,  "  is  this  a 
joke?  I  am  afraid  my  sense  of  humour  grows  a 
little  dull  at  this  hour  of  the  morning." 

"  It  was  not  meant  for  a  joke,"  Engleton  said. 
"  My  words  were  spoken  in  earnest." 

The  Princess,  without  any  absolute  movement, 
seemed  suddenly  to  become  more  erect.  One  for- 
got her  rouge,  her  blackened  eyebrows,  her  pow- 
dered cheeks.  It  was  the  great  lady  who  looked 
at  Engleton. 

"  Are  we  to  take  this,  Lord  Ronald,"  she  asked, 
"  as  a  serious  accusation?  " 

"  You  can  take  it  for  what  it  is,  madam,"  Engle- 
ton answered  —  "  the  truth." 

Cecil  de  la  Borne  rose  to  his  feet  and  leaned 
across  the  table.  His  cheeks  were  as  pale  as  death. 
His  voice  was  shaking. 

"  I  am  your  host,  Engleton,"  he  said,  u  and  I 


JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES      85 

demand  an  explanation  of  what  you  have  said. 
Your  accusation  is  absurd.  You  must  be  drunk 
or  out  of  your  senses." 

"  I  am  neither  drunk  nor  out  of  my  senses," 
Engleton  answered,  "  nor  am  I  such  an  utter  fool 
as  to  be  so  easily  deceived.  The  fact  that  you,  as 
my  partner,  played  like  an  idiot,  made  rotten  dec- 
larations, and  revoked  when  one  rubber  was  nearly 
won,  I  pass  over.  That  may  or  may  not  have  been 
your  miserable  idea  of  the  game.  Apart  from  that, 
however,  I  regret  to  have  discovered  that  you, 
Forrest,  and  you,  madam,"  he  added,  addressing 
the  Princess,  "  have  made  use  throughout  the  last 
seven  rubbers  of  a  code  with  your  fingers,  both 
for  the  declarations  and  for  the  leads.  My  sus- 
picions were  aroused,  I  must  confess,  by  accident,, 
It  was  remarkably  easy,  however,  to  verify  them. 
Look  here !  " 

Engleton  touched  his  forehead. 

"Hearts!  "he  said. 

He  touched  his  lip. 

"  Diamonds!  "  he  added. 

He  passed  his  fingers  across  his  eyebrows. 

"  Clubs!  "  he  remarked. 

He  beat  with  his  fourth  finger  softly  upon  the 
table. 

"Spades!" 

Major  Forrest  rose  to  his  feet. 


86        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

'  Lord  Ronald,"  he  said,  "  I  am  exceedingly 
sorry  that  owing  to  my  introduction  you  have 
become  a  guest  in  this  house.  As  for  your  ridicu- 
lous accusation,  I  deny  it." 

"  And  I,"  the  Princess  murmured. 

"  Naturally,"  Engleton  answered  smoothly. 
"  I  really  do  not  see  what  else  you  could  do.  I 
regret  very  much  to  have  been  the  unfortunate 
means  of  breaking  up  such  a  pleasant  little  house- 
party.  I  am  going  to  my  room  now  to  change  my 
clothes,  and  I  will  trespass  upon  your  hospitality, 
Mr.  De  la  Borne,  only  so  far  as  to  beg  you  to  let 
me  have  a  cart,  or  something  of  the  sort,  to  drive 
me  into  Wells,  as  soon  as  your  people  come  on  the 


scene." 


Engleton  rose  to  his  feet,  and  with  a  stiff  little 
bow,  walked  toward  the  door.  He,  too,  seemed 
somehow  during  the  last  few  minutes  to  have 
shown  signs  of  a  greater  virility  than  was  at  any 
time  manifest  in  his  boyish,  somewhat  unintelli- 
gent, face.  He  carried  himself  with  a  new  dignity, 
and  he  spoke  with  the  decision  of  an  older  man. 
For  a  moment  they  watched  him  go.  Then  For- 
rest, obeying  a  lightning-like  glance  from  the  Prin- 
cess, crossed  the  room  swiftly  and  stood  with  his 
back  to  the  door. 

"  Engleton,"  he  said,  "  this  is  absurd.  We  can 
afford  to  ignore  your  mad  behaviour  and  your  dis- 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      87 

courtesy,  but  before  you  leave  this  room  we  must 
come  to  an  understanding." 

Lord  Ronald  stood  with  his  hands  behind  his 
back. 

"  I  had  imagined,"  he  said,  "  that  an  under- 
standing was  exactly  what  we  had  come  to.  My 
words  were  plain  enough,  were  they  not?  I  am 
leaving  this  house  because  I  have  found  myself  in 
the  company  of  sharks  and  card-sharpers." 

Forrest's  eyes  narrowed.  A  quick  little  breath 
passed  between  his  teeth.  He  took  a  step  forward 
toward  the  young  man,  as  though  about  to  strike 
him. 

Engleton,  however,  remained  unmoved. 

"  You  are  going  to  carry  away  a  story  like 
this?  "  he  said  hoarsely. 

"  I  shall  tell  my  friends,"  Engleton  answered, 
"  just  as  much  or  as  little  as  I  choose  of  my  visit 
here.  Since,  however,  you  are  curious,  I  may  say 
that  should  I  find  you  at  any  future  time  in  any 
respectable  house,  it  will  be  my  duty  to  inform  any 
one  of  my  friends  who  are  present  of  the  character 
of  their  fellow-guest.  Will  you  be  so  good  as  to 
stand  away  from  that  door?" 

"  No  !  "  Forrest  answered. 

Engleton  turned  toward  Cecil. 

"  Mr.  De  la  Borne,"  he  said,  "  may  I  appeal  to 
you,  as  it  is  your  house,  to  allow  me  egress  from 
it?" 


88       JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

Cecil  came  hesitatingly  up  to  the  two.  The 
Princess,  with  a  sweep  of  her  skirts,  followed  him. 

"  Major  Forrest  is  right,"  she  declared.  "  We 
cannot  have  this  madman  go  back  to  London  to 
spread  about  slanderous  tales.  Major  Forrest  will 
stand  away  from  that  door,  Lord  Ronald,  as  soon 
as  you  pass  your  word  that  what  has  happened 
to-night  will  remain  a  secret." 

Engleton  laughed  contemptuously. 

"  Not  I,"  he  answered.  "  Exactly  what  I  said 
to  Major  Forrest,  I  repeat,  madam,  to  you,  and  to 
you,  sir,  my  host.  I  shall  give  my  friends  the 
benefit  of  my  experience  whenever  it  seems  to  me 
advisable." 

Forrest  locked  the  door,  and  put  the  key  into  his 
pocket. 

"  We  shall  hope,  Lord  Ronald,"  he  said  quietly, 
"  to  induce  you  to  change  your  mind." 


CHAPTER    XI 

"Every  one  down  for  luncheon!  "  Jeanne  de- 
clared. "  What  energy !  Where  is  Lord  Ronald, 
by  the  by?"  she  added,  looking  around  the  room. 
"  He  promised  to  take  me  out  sailing  this  morning. 
I  wonder  if  I  missed  him  on  the  marshes." 

The  Princess  yawned,  and  glanced  at  the  clock. 

"  By  this  time,"  she  remarked,  "  Lord  Ronald  is 
probably  in  London.  He  had  a  telegram  or  some- 
thing in  the  middle  of  the  night,  and  went  away 
early  this  morning." 

Jeanne  looked  at  them  in  surprise. 

"How  queer!"  she  remarked.  "I  was  down 
before  nine  o'clock.     Had  he  left  then?' 

"  Long  before  then,  I  believe,"  Forrest  an- 
swered. "  He  is  very  likely  coming  back  in  a  day 
or  two." 

Jeanne  nodded  indifferently.  The  intelligence, 
after  all,  was  of  little  importance  to  her. 

"Has  the  luncheon  gong  gone?"  she  asked. 
"  I  have  been  out  since  ten  o'clock,  and  I  am  starv- 
ing." 


90        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

Cecil  led  the  way  across  the  hall  into  the  dining- 
room. 

"  Come  along,"  he  said.  "  I  wish  we  all  had 
such  healthy  appetites." 

She  glanced  at  him,  and  then  at  the  others. 

"  Well,"  she  said,  "  you  certainly  look  as  though 
you  had  been  up  very  late  last  night.  What  is  the 
matter  with  you  all?  " 

u  We  were  very  foolish,"  Major  Forrest  said 
softly.  "  We  sat  up  a  great  deal  too  late,  and  I 
am  afraid  that  we  all  smoked  too  many  cigarettes. 
You  see  it  was  our  last  night,  for  without  Engleton 
our  bridge  is  over." 

"  We  must  try,"  Cecil  said,  "  and  find  some 
other  form  of  entertainment  for  you.  Would  you 
like  to  sail  again  this  afternoon,  Princess?" 

"  I  believe,"  she  answered,  "  that  I  should  like 
it  if  I  may  have  plenty  of  cushions  and  a  soft  place 
for  my  head,  so  that  if  I  feel  like  it  I  can  go  to 
sleep.  Really,  these  late  nights  are  dreadful.  I 
am  almost  glad  that  Lord  Ronald  has  gone.  At 
least  there  will  be  no  excuse  for  us  to  sit  up  until 
daylight." 

"  To-night,"  Major  Forrest  remarked,  "  let  us 
all  be  primitive.  We  will  go  to  bed  at  eleven 
o'clock,  and  get  up  in  the  morning  and  walk  with 
Miss  Le  Mesurier  upon  the  marshes.  What  do 
you  find  upon  the  sands,  I  wonder,"   he  added, 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      91 

turning  a  little  suddenly  toward  the  girl,  "  to  bring 
such  a  colour  to  your  cheeks,  and  to  keep  you  away 
from  us  for  so  many  hours?  " 

Jeanne  looked  at  him  for  a  moment  without 
change  of  features. 

"  It  would  not  be  easy,"  she  said,  "  for  me  to  tell 
you,  for  I  find  things  there  which  you  could  not 
appreciate  or  understand." 

"You  find  them  alone?"  Major  Forrest  asked 
smiling. 

She  turned  her  left  shoulder  upon  him  and  ad- 
dressed her  host. 

"  Major  Forrest  is  very  impertinent,"  she  said. 
"  I  think  that  I  will  not  talk  with  him  any  more. 
Tell  me,  Mr.  De  la  Borne,  do  you  really  mean 
that  we  can  go  sailing  this  afternoon?  " 

"  If  you  will,"  he  answered.  "  I  have  sent  down 
to  the  village  to  tell  them  to  bring  the  boat  up  to 
our  harbourage." 

She  nodded. 

"  I  shall  love  it,"  she  declared.  "  It  will  be 
such  a  good  thing  for  you  three,  too,  because  it 
will  make  you  all  sleepy,  and  then  you  will  be  able 
to  go  to  bed  and  not  worry  about  your  bridge. 
When  is  Lord  Ronald  coming  back?  " 

"  He  was  not  quite  sure,"  the  Princess  remarked. 
"  It  depends  upon  the  urgency  of  his  business  which 
summoned  him  away." 


92        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

"  How  odd,"  Jeanne  remarked,  "  to  think  of 
Lord  Ronald  as  having  any  business  at  all.  I  can- 
not understand  even  now  why  I  did  not  hear  the 
car  go.  My  room  is  just  over  the  entrance  to  the 
courtyard." 

"  It  is  a  proof,"  Major  Forrest  remarked, 
"  that  you  sleep  as  soundly  as  you  deserve." 

"  I  am  not  so  sure  about  that,"  Jeanne  said. 
"  Last  night,  for  instance,  it  seemed  to  me  that 
I  heard  all  manner  of  strange  sounds." 

Cecil  de  la  Borne  looked  up  quickly. 

"  Sounds?  "  he  repeated.  "  Do  you  mean  noises 
in  the  house?  " 

She  nodded. 

"  Yes,  and  voices !  Once  I  thought  that  you 
must  be  all  quarrelling,  and  then  I  thought  that  I 
heard  some  one  fall  down.  After  that  there  was 
nothing  but  the  opening  and  shutting  of  doors." 

"  And  after  that,"  the  Princess  remarked  smi- 
ling, "  you  probably  went  to  sleep." 

"  Exactly,"  Jeanne  admitted.  "  I  went  to  sleep 
listening  for  footsteps.  I  think  it  was  very  rude 
of  Ronald  to  go  away  without  saying  good-bye  to 


me. 


"  You  would  have  thought  it  still  ruder,"  Cecil 
remarked,  "if  he  had  had  you  roused  at  five 
o'clock  or  so  to  make  his  adieux." 

The  Princess  and  Jeanne  left  the  table  together 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      93 

a  few  minutes  before  the  other  two,  and  Jeanne 
asked  her  stepmother  a  question. 

"  How  long  are  we  going  to  stop  here?"  she 
inquired.  "  I  thought  that  our  visit  was  for  two 
or  three  days  only." 

The  Princess  hesitated. 

*  Cecil  is  such  a  nice  boy,"  she  said,  "  and  he  is 
so  anxious  to  have  us  stay  a  little  longer.  What 
do  you  say?     You  are  not  bored?  " 

"  I  am  not  bored,"  Jeanne  answered,  "  so  long 
as  you  can  keep  him  from  saying  silly  things  to  me. 
On  the  contrary,  I  like  to  be  here.  I  like  it  better 
than  London.  I  like  it  better  than  any  place  I 
have  been  in  since  I  left  school." 

The  Princess  looked  at  her  a  little  curiously. 

" 1  wonder,"  she  said,  "  whether  I  ought  to  be 
looking  after  you  a  little  more  closely,  my  child. 
What  do  you  do  on  the  marshes  there  all  the  time? 
Do  you  talk  with  this  Mr.  Andrew?  " 

"  I  went  with  him  in  his  boat  this  morning," 
Jeanne  answered  composedly.  "  It  was  very  pleas- 
ant.   We  had  a  delightful  sail." 

The  Princess  shrugged  her  shoulders. 

"  Well,"  she  said,  "  one  must  amuse  oneself,  and 
I  suppose  it  is  only  reasonable  that  we  should  all 
choose  different  ways.  I  think  I  need  not  tell  even 
such  a  child  as  you  that  men  are  the  same  all  the 
world  over,  and  that  even  a  fisherman,  if  he  is  en- 


94        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 
couraged,  may  be  guilty  sometimes  of  an  imperti- 


nence." 


Jeanne  raised  her  eyebrows. 

"  I  have  not  the  slightest  fear,"  she  said,  "  that 
Mr.  Andrew  would  ever  be  guilty  of  anything  of 
the  sort.  I  wish  I  could  say  the  same  of  some  of 
the  people  whom  I  have  met  in  our  own  circle  of 
society." 

The  Princess  smiled  tolerantly. 

"  Nowadays,"  she  remarked,  "  it  is  perfectly 
true  that  men  do  take  too  great  liberties.  Well, 
amuse  yourself  with  your  fisherman,  my  dear  child. 
It  is  your  legitimate  occupation  in  life  to  make 
fools  of  all  manner  of  men,  and  there  is  no  harm 
in  your  beginning  as  low  down  as  you  choose  if  it 
amuses  you." 

Jeanne  walked  deliberately  away.  The  Princess 
laughed  a  little  uneasily.  As  she  watched  Jeanne 
ascend  the  stairs,  Forrest  and  Cecil  came  out  into 
the  hall.  They  all  three  moved  together  into  the 
further  corner,  where  coffee  was  set  out  upon  a 
small  table,  and  it  was  significant  that  they  did  not 
speak  a  word  until  they  were  there,  and  even  then 
Major  Forrest  looked  cautiously  around  before  he 
opened  his  lips. 

"  Well  ?"  he  asked. 

The  Princess  smiled  scornfully  at  their  white, 
anxious  faces. 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      95 

"  What  are  you  afraid  of?  "  she  asked  contemp- 
tuously. "  Jeanne  suspects  nothing,  of  course. 
There  is  nothing  which  she  could  suspect.  She 
has  not  mentioned  his  name  even." 

Cecil  drew  a  little  breath  of  relief.  His  face 
seemed  to  have  grown  haggard  during  the  last  few 
hours. 

"  I  wish  to  God,"  he  muttered,  "  we  were  out  of 
this !  " 

The  Princess  turned  her  head  and  looked  at  him 
coldly. 

"  My  young  friend,"  she  said,  "  you  men  are 
all  the  same.  You  have  no  philosophy.  The  in- 
evitable has  happened,  or  rather  the  inevitable  has 
been  forced  upon  us.  What  we  have  done  we  did 
deliberately.  We  could  not  do  otherwise,  and  we 
cannot  undo  it.  Remember  that.  And  if  you  have 
a  grain  of  philosophy  or  courage  in  you,  keep  a 
stouter  heart  and  wear  a  smile  upon  your  face." 

Cecil  rose  to  his  feet. 

"  You  are  right,"  he  said.  "  Are  you  ready, 
Forrest?    Will  you  come  with  me?  " 

Forrest  rose  slowly  to  his  feet. 

"  Of  course,"  he  said.  "  By  the  by,  a  sail  this 
afternoon  was  a  good  idea.  We  must  develop  an 
interest  in  country  pursuits.  It  is  possible  even," 
he  added,  "  that  we  may  have  to  take  to  golf." 

The  Princess,  too,  rose. 


96        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

"  Come  into  my  room,  one  of  you,"  she  said, 
"  and  see  me  for  a  moment,  afterwards.  I  sup- 
pose we  shall  start  for  our  sail  about  three?  " 

Cecil  nodded. 

"  The  boat  will  be  here  by  then,"  he  said. 

"  And  I  will  come  up  and  bring  you  the  news, 
if  there  is  any,"  Forrest  added. 


CHAPTER   XII 

The  man  who  stood  with  a  telescope  glued  to 
his  eye  watching  the  coming  boat,  shut  it  up  at 
last  with  a  little  snap.  He  walked  round  to  the 
other  side  of  the  cottage,  where  Andrew  was  sitting 
with  a  pipe  in  his  mouth  industriously  mending  a 
fishing  net. 

"  Andrew,"  he  said,  "  there  are  some  people 
coming  here,  and  I  am  almost  sure  that  they  mean 
to  land." 

Andrew  rose  to  his  feet  and  strolled  round  to  the 
little  stretch  of  beach  in  front  of  the  cottage. 
When  he  saw  who  it  was  who  approached,  he 
stopped  short  and  took  his  pipe  from  his  mouth. 

'  By  Jove,  it's  Cecil,"  he  exclaimed,  "  and  his 
friends !  " 

His  companion  nodded.  He  was  a  man  still  on 
the  youthful  side  of  middle  age,  with  bronzed 
features,  and  short,  closely-cut  beard.  He  looked 
what  he  was,  a  traveller  and  a  sportsman. 

"  So  I  imagined,"  he  said,  "  but  I  don't  see 
Ronald  there." 

Andrew  shaded  his  eyes  with  his  hand. 


93        JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

"No!"  he  said.  "There  is  the  Princess  and 
Cecil,  and  Major  Forrest  and  Miss  Le  Mesurier. 
No  one  else.  They  certainly  do  look  as  though 
they  were  going  to  land  here." 

"  Why  not?  "  the  other  man  remarked.  "  Why 
shouldn't  Cecil  come  to  visit  his  hermit  brother?' 

Andrew  frowned. 

"  Berners,"  he  said,  "  I  want  you  to  remember 
this.  If  they  land  here  and  you  see  anything  of 
them,  will  you  have  the  goodness  to  understand 
that  I  am  Mr.  Andrew,  fisherman,  and  that  you 
are  my  lodger?  " 

Andrew's  companion  looked  at  him  in  surprise. 

"What  sort  of  a  game  is  this,  Andrew?"  he 
asked. 

Andrew  de  la  Borne  shrugged  his  shoulders  and 
smiled  good-naturedly. 

"  Never  mind  about  that,  Dick,"  he  answered. 
"  Call  it  a  whim  or  anything  else  you  like.  The 
fact  is  that  Cecil  had  some  guests  coming  whom  I 
did  not  particularly  care  to  meet,  and  who  cer- 
tainly would  not  have  been  interested  in  me.  I 
thought  it  would  be  best  to  clear  out  altogether, 
so  I  have  left  Cecil  in  possession  of  the  Hall,  and 
they  don't  even  know  that  I  exist." 

The  man  named  Berners  looked  up  at  his  host 
with  twinkling  eyes. 

"  Right!  "  he  said.    "  So  far  as  I  am  concerned, 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES      99 

you  shall  be  Mr.  Andrew,  fisherman.  Will  you 
also  kindly  remember  that  if  any  curiosity  is 
evinced  as  to  my  identity,  I  am  Mr.  Berners,  and 
that  I  am  here  for  a  rest-cure.  By  the  by,  how  are 
you  going  to  explain  that  elderly  domestic  of 
yours?  " 

"  He  is  your  servant,  of  course,"  Andrew  an- 
swered. "  He  understands  the  position.  I  have 
spoken  to  him  already.  Yes,  they  are  coming  here 
right  enough !  Suppose  you  help  me  to  pull  in  the 
boat  for  them." 

The  two  men  sauntered  down  to  the  shelving 
beach.  The  boat  was  close  to  them  now,  and  Cecil 
was  standing  up  in  the  bows. 

"  We  want  to  land  for  a  few  minutes,"  he  called 
out. 

"  Throw  a  rope,  then,"  Andrew  answered 
briefly.  "  You  had  better  come  in  this  side  of  the 
landing-stage." 

The  rope  was  thrown,  and  the  boat  dragged 
high  and  dry  upon  the  pebbly  beach.  The  Prin- 
cess, after  a  glance  at  him  through  her  lorgnette, 
surrendered  herself  willingly  to  Andrew's  out- 
stretched hands. 

"  I  am  quite  sure,"  she  said,  "  that  you  will  not 
let  me  fall.  You  must  be  the  wonderful  person 
whom  my  daughter  has  told  me  about.  Is  this 
queer  little  place  really  your  home?  " 


100      JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES 

"  I  live  here,"  Andrew  de  la  Borne  said  simply. 

Jeanne  leaned  over  towards  him. 

"Won't  you  please  help  me,  Mr.  Andrew?" 
she  said,  smiling  down  at  him. 

He  held  out  his  arms,  and  she  sprang  lightly  to 
the  ground. 

"  I  hope  you  don't  mind  our  coming,"  she  said 
to  him.     "  I  was  so  anxious  to  see  your  cottage." 

"  There  is  little  enough  to  see,"  Andrew  an- 
swered, "  but  you  are  very  welcome." 

"  We  are  sorry  to  trouble  you,"  Cecil  said,  a 
little  uneasily,  "  but  would  it  be  possible  to  give 
these  ladies  some  tea?" 

"  Certainly,"  Andrew  answered.  "  I  will  go 
and  get  it  ready." 

"Oh,  what  fun!"  Jeanne  declared.  "I  am 
coming  to  help.  Please,  Mr.  Andrew,  do  let  me 
help.     I  am  sure  I  could  make  tea." 

"  It  is  not  necessary,  thank  you,"  Andrew  an- 
swered. "  I  have  a  lodger  who  has  brought  his  own 
servant.  As  it  happens  he  was  just  preparing  some 
tea  for  us.  If  you  will  come  round  to  the  other 
side,  where  it  is  a  little  more  sheltered,  I  will  bring 
you  some  chairs." 

They  moved  across  the  grass-grown  little  stretch 
of  sand.    The  Princess  peered  curiously  at  Berners. 

"  Your  face,"  she  remarked,  "  seems  quite  famil- 
iar to  me." 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     101 

Berners  did  not  for  the  moment  answer  her. 
He  was  looking  towards  Forrest,  who  was  busy 
lighting  a  cigarette. 

"  I  am  afraid,  madam,"  he  said,  after  a  slight 
pause,  "  that  I  cannot  claim  the  honour  of  having 
met  you." 

The  Princess  was  not  altogether  satisfied. 
Jeanne  had  gone  on  with  Andrew,  and  she  fol- 
lowed slowly  walking  with  Berners. 

"  I  have  such  a  good  memory  for  faces,"  she 
remarked,  "  and  I  am  very  seldom  mistaken." 

"  I  am  afraid,"  Berners  said,  "  that  this  must  be 
one  of  those  rare  occasions.  If  you  will  allow  me 
I  will  go  and  help  Andrew  bring  out  some  seats." 

He  disappeared  into  the  cottage,  and  came  out 
again  almost  directly  with  a  couple  of  chairs.  This 
time  he  met  Forrest's  direct  gaze,  and  the  two  men 
stood  for  a  moment  or  two  looking  at  one  another. 
Forrest  turned  uneasily  away. 

'  Who  the  devil  is  that  chap?  "  he  whispered  to 
Cecil.      '  I'll  swear  I've  seen  him  somewhere." 

'  Very  likely,"  Cecil  answered  wearily,  throwing 
himself  down  on  the  turf.  "  I've  no  memory  for 
faces." 

Jeanne  had  stepped  into  the  cottage,  and  gave 
a  little  cry  of  delight  as  she  found  herself  in  a  small 
sitting-room,  the  walls  of  which  were  lined  with 
books  and  guns  and  fishing-tackle. 


102      JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

"What  a  delightful  room,  Mr.  Andrew!"  she 
exclaimed.     "  Why  —  " 

She  paused  and  looked  up  at  him,  a  little  mysti- 
fied. 

'  Do  the  fishermen  in  Norfolk  read  Shakespeare 
and  Keats?  "  she  asked.  "  And  French  books,  too, 
De  Maupassant  and  De  Musset?  " 

1  They   are   my   lodger's,"    Andrew    answered. 
'  This  is  his  room.    I  sit  in  the  kitchen  when  I  am 
at  home." 

His  dialect  was  more  marked  than  ever,  and  his 
answer  had  been  delivered  without  any  hesitation. 
Nevertheless,  Jeanne  was  still  a  little  puzzled. 

"May  I  come  into  the  kitchen,  please?"  she 
asked. 

"  Certainly,"  he  answered.  "  You  will  find  Mr. 
Berners'  servant  there  getting  tea  ready." 

Jeanne  peeped  in,  and  looked  back  at  Andrew, 
who  was  standing  behind  her. 

"What  a  lovely  stone  floor!"  she  exclaimed. 
"  And  your  copper  kettle,  too,  is  delightful !  Do 
you  mean  that  when  you  have  not  a  lodger  here, 
you  cook  and  do  everything  for  yourself?" 

"  There  are  times,"  he  answered  composedly, 
"  when  I  have  a  little  assistance.  It  depends  upon 
whether  the  fishing  season  has  been  good." 

Berners  came  in,  and  threw  himself  into  an  easy- 
chair  in  the  sitting-room. 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     103 


it 


Make  what  use  you  like  of  my  man,  Andrew," 
he  said.  "  I  will  have  a  cup  of  tea  in  here  after- 
wards." 

"  I'm  very  much  obliged,  sir,"  Andrew  an- 
swered. 

The  Princess  called  out  to  him,  and  he  stepped 
back  once  more  to  where  they  were  all  sitting. 

"  It  is  a  shame,"  she  said,  "  that  we  drive  your 
lodger  away  from  his  seat.  Will  you  not  ask  him 
to  take  tea  with  us?  " 

"  I  am  afraid,"  Andrew  answered,  "  that  he  is 
not  a  very  sociable  person.  He  has  come  down 
here  because  he  wants  a  complete  rest,  and  he  does 
not  speak  to  any  one  unless  he  is  obliged.  He 
has  just  asked  me  to  have  his  tea  sent  into  his 


room." 


"  Where  does  he  come  from,  this  strange 
man?  "  the  Princess  asked.  "  It  is  all  the  time  in 
my  mind  that  I  have  met  him  somewhere.  I  am 
sure  that  he  is  one  of  us." 

"  I  believe  that  he  lives  in  London,"  Andrew 
answered,  "  and  his  name  is  Berners,  Mr.  Richard 
Berners." 

"  I  do  not  seem  to  remember  the  name,"  the 
Princess  remarked,  "  but  the  man's  face  worries 
me.  What  a  delightful  looking  tea-tray!  Mr. 
Andrew,  you  must  really  sit  down  with  us.  We 
ought  to  apologize  for  taking  you  by  storm  like 


104      JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES 

this,  and  I  have  not  thanked  you  yet  for  being  so 
kind  to  my  daughter." 

Andrew  stepped  back  toward  the  cottage  with 
a  firm  refusal  upon  his  lips,  but  Jeanne's  hand 
suddenly  rested  upon  the  arm  of  his  coarse  blue 
jersey. 

"  If  you  please,  Mr.  Andrew,"  she  begged,  "  I 
want  you  to  sit  by  me  and  tell  me  how  you  came 
to  live  in  so  strange  a  place.  Do  you  really  not 
mind  the  solitude?  " 

Andrew  looked  down  at  her  for  a  moment  with- 
out answering.  For  the  first  time,  perhaps,  he 
realized  the  charm  of  her  pale  expressive  face  with 
its  rapid  changes,  and  the  soft  insistent  fire  of  her 
beautiful  eyes.  He  hesitated  for  a  moment  and 
then  remained  where  he  was,  leaning  against  the 
flag-staff. 

"  It  is  very  good  of  you,  miss,"  he  said.  "  As 
to  why  I  came  to  live  here,  I  do  so  simply  because 
the  house  belongs  to  me.  It  was  my  father's  and 
his  father's.  We  folk  who  live  in  the  country 
make  few  changes." 

She  looked  at  him  curiously.  The  men  whom 
she  had  known,  even  those  of  the  class  to  whom 
he  might  be  supposed  to  belong,  were  all  in  a  way 
different.  This  man  talked  only  when  he  was 
obliged.  All  the  time  she  felt  in  him  the  attraction 
of  the  unknown.     He  answered  her  questions  and 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     105 

remarks  in  words,  the  rest  remained  unspoken. 
She  looked  at  him  contemplatively  as  he  stood  by 
her  side  with  a  tea-cup  in  his  hand,  leaning  still  a 
little  against  the  flag-staff.  Notwithstanding  his 
rough  clothes  and  heavy  fisherman's  boots,  there 
was  nothing  about  his  attitude  or  his  speech,  save 
in  its  dialect,  to  denote  the  fact  that  he  was  of  a 
different  order  from  that  in  which  she  had  been 
brought  up.  She  felt  an  immense  curiosity  con- 
cerning him,  and  she  felt,  too,  that  it  would  prob- 
ably never  be  gratified.  Most  men  were  her  slaves 
from  the  moment  she  smiled  upon  them.  This  one 
she  fancied  seemed  a  little  bored  by  her  presence. 
He  did  not  even  seem  to  be  thinking  about  her. 
He  was  watching  steadily  and  with  somewhat  bent 
eyebrows  Cecil  de  la  Borne  and  Forrest.  Some- 
thing struck  her  as  she  looked  from  one  to  the 
other. 

'  I  read  once,"  she  remarked,  "  that  people  who 
live  in  a  very  small  village  for  generation  after 
generation  grow  to  look  like  one  another.  In  a 
certain  way  I  cannot  conceive  two  men  more  un- 
like, and  yet  at  that  moment  there  was  something 
in  your  face  which  reminded  me  of  Mr.  De  la 
Borne." 

He   looked   down   at   her  with   a   quick   frown. 
Decidedly  he  was  annoyed. 

"  You   are   certainly   the    first,"    he   said   drily, 


106      JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

"  who  has  ever  discovered  the  likeness,  if  there  is 
any." 

"  It  does  not  amount  to  a  likeness,"  she  an- 
swered, "  and  you  need  not  look  so  angry.  Mr. 
De  la  Borne  is  considered  very  good-looking. 
Dear  me,  what  a  nuisance !  Do  you  see?  We  are 
going!" 

Andrew  de  la  Borne  took  the  cup  from  her  hand 
and  helped  to  prepare  the  boat.  With  a  faint 
smile  upon  his  lips  he  heard  a  little  colloquy  be- 
tween Cecil  and  the  Princess  which  amused  him. 
The  Princess,  as  he  prepared  to  hand  her  into  the 
boat,  showed  herself  at  any  rate  possessed  of  the 
instincts  of  her  order.  She  held  out  her  hand  and 
smiled  sweetly  upon  Andrew. 

"  We  are  so  much  obliged  to  you  for  your  de- 
lightful tea,  Mr.  Andrew,"  she  said.  "  I  hope 
that  next  time  my  daughter  goes  wandering  about 
in  dangerous  places  you  may  be  there  to  look  after 
her." 

Andrew  looked  swiftly  away  towards  Jeanne. 
Somehow  or  other  the  Princess'  words  seemed  to 
come  to  him  at  that  moment  charged  with  some 
secondary  meaning.  He  felt  instinctively  that  not- 
withstanding her  thoroughly  advanced  airs,  Jeanne 
was  little  more  than  a  child  as  compared  with 
these  people.  She  met  his  eyes  with  one  of  her 
most  delightful  smiles. 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     107 

"  Some  day,  I  hope,"  she  said,  "  that  you  will 
take  me  out  in  the  punt  again.  I  can  assure  you 
that  I  quite  enjoyed  being  rescued." 

The  little  party  sailed  away,  Cecil  with  an  ob- 
vious air  of  relief.  Andrew  turned  slowly  round, 
and  met  his  friend  issuing  from  the  door  of  the 
cottage. 

"  Andrew,"  he  said,  "  no  wonder  you  did  not 
care  about  being  host  to  such  a  crowd !  ' 

There  was  meaning  in  his  tone,  and  Andrew 
looked  at  him  thoughtfully. 

"  Do  you  know  —  anything  definite?  "  he  asked. 

Berners  nodded. 

"  About  one  of  them,"  he  said,  "  I  certainly  do. 
I  wonder  what  on  earth  has  become  of  Ronald. 
He  was  with  them  yesterday." 

"  Had  enough,  perhaps,"  Andrew  suggested. 

Berners  shook  his  head. 

"  I  am  afraid  not,"  he  answered  slowly.  "  I 
wish  I  could  think  that  he  had  so  much  sense." 


CHAPTER   XIII 

Cecil  came  into  the  room  abruptly,  and  closed 
the  door  behind  him.  He  was  breathing  quickly 
as  though  he  had  been  running.  His  lips  were  a 
little  parted,  and  in  his  eyes  shone  an  unmistakable 
expression  of  fear.  Forrest  and  the  Princess  both 
looked  towards  him  apprehensively. 

"What  is  it,  Cecil?"  the  latter  asked  quickly. 
"  You  are  a  fool  to  go  about  the  house  looking 
like  that." 

Cecil  came  further  into  the  room  and  threw 
himself  into  a  chair. 

"  It  is  that  fellow  upon  the  island,"  he  said. 
"  You  remember  we  all  said  that  his  face  was 
familiar.  I  have  seen  him  again,  and  I  have  re- 
membered." 

"  Remembered  what?  "  the  Princess  asked. 

"  Where  it  was  that  I  saw  him  last,"  Cecil  an- 
swered. "  It  was  in  Pall  Mall,  and  he  was  walk- 
ing with  —  with  Engleton.  It  was  before  I  knew 
him,  but  I  knew  who  he  was.  He  must  be  a  friend 
of  Engleton's.  What  do  you  suppose  that  he  is 
doing  here?  " 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     109 

Cecil  was  shaking  like  a  leaf.  The  Princess 
looked  towards  him  contemptuously. 

"  Come,"  she  said,  "  there  is  no  need  for  you  to 
behave  like  a  terrified  child.  Even  if  you  have 
seen  him  once  with  Lord  Ronald,  what  on  earth 
is  there  in  that  to  be  terrified  about?  Lord  Ronald 
had  many  friends  and  acquaintances  everywhere. 
This  one  is  surely  harmless  enough.  He  behaved 
quite  naturally  on  the  island,  remember." 

Cecil  shook  his  head. 

"  I  do  not  understand,"  he  said.  "  I  do  not 
understand  what  he  can  be  doing  in  this  part  of 
the  world,  unless  he  has  some  object.  I  saw  him 
just  now  standing  behind  a  tree  at  the  entrance  to 
the  drive,  watching  me  drive  golf  balls  out  on'  to 
the  marsh.  I  am  almost  certain  that  he  was  about 
the  place  last  night.  I  saw  some  one  who  looked 
very  much  like  him  pass  along  the  cliffs  just  about 
dinner-time." 

"  You  are  frightened  at  shadows,"  the  Princess 
declared  contemptuously.  "If  he  were  one  of 
Lord  Ronald's  friends,  and  he  had  come  here  to 
look  for  him,  he  wouldn't  play  about  watching  you 
from  a  distance.  Besides,  there  has  been  no  time 
yet.  Lord  Ronald  only  —  left  here  yesterday 
morning." 

"  What  is  he  doing,  then,  watching  this  house?  " 
Cecil  asked.    "  That  is  what  I  do  not  like." 


110      JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

The  Princess  raised  her  eyebrows  contemptu- 
ously. 

"  My  dear  Cecil,"  she  said,  "  it  is  just  a  coinci- 
dence, and  not  a  very  remarkable  one  at  that. 
Lord  Ronald  had  the  name,  ypu  know,  of  having 
acquaintances  in  every  quarter  of  the  world." 

Cecil  drew  a  little  breath. 

"  It  may  be  all  right,"  he  said,  "  but  I  am  not 
used  to  this  sort  of  thing,  and  it  gives  me  the 
creeps." 

"  Of  course  it  is  all  right,"  the  Princess  said 
composedly.  "  One  would  think  that  we  were  a 
pack  of  children,  to  take  any  notice  of  such  trifles. 
It  is  too  early,  my  dear  Cecil,  by  many  a  day,  to 
look  for  trouble  yet.  Lord  Ronald  always  wan- 
dered about  pretty  much  as  he  chose.  It  will  be 
months  before  —  " 

"  Don't  go  on,"  Cecil  interrupted.  "  I  suppose 
I  am  a  fool,  but  all  the  time  I  am  fancying  things." 

Forrest  moved  away  with  a  little  laugh,  and 
the  Princess  rose  and  thrust  her  arm  through 
Cecil's. 

"  Silly  boy!  "  she  said.  "  You  have  nothing  to 
be  frightened  about,  I  can  assure  you." 

"  I  am  not  frightened,"  Cecil  answered.  "  I 
don't  think  that  I  was  ever  a  coward.  All  the 
same,  there  are  some  things  about  this  fellow 
which  I  don't  quite  understand." 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     ill 

The  Princess  laughed  as  she  swept  from  the 
room. 

"  Don't  be  foolish,  Cecil,"  she  said.  "  Remem- 
ber that  we  are  all  here,  and  that  nothing  can  go 
wrong  unless  we  lose  our  nerve." 


Forrest  found  the  Princess  alone  a  little  later  in 
the  evening,  waiting  in  the  hall  for  the  dinner- 
gong.  He  drew  her  into  a  corner,  under  pretext 
of  showing  her  one  of  the  old  engravings,  dark 
with  age,  which  hung  upon  the  wall. 

"  Ena,"  he  said,  "  I  suppose  that  you  trust  Cecil 
de  la  Borne?  You  haven't  any  fear  about  him, 
eh?" 

The  Princess  shrugged  her  shoulders. 

"No!"  she  answered.  "He  is  a  coward  at 
heart,  but  he  has  enough  vanity,  I  believe,  to 
keep  him  from  doing  anything  foolish.  All  the 
same,  I  think  it  is  wiser  not  to  leave  him  alone 
here." 

"  He  would  not  stay,"  Forrest  remarked.  "  He 
told  me  so  only  this  morning." 

"You  suggested  leaving?"  the  Princess  asked. 

Forrest  nodded. 

"  I  couldn't  help  it,"  he  said,  a  little  sullenly. 
"  There  is  something  about  these  great  empty 
rooms,  and  the  silence  of  the  place,  that's  getting 


112      JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

on  my  nerves.  I  start  every  time  that  great  front- 
door bell  clangs,  or  I  hear  an  unfamiliar  footstep 
in  the  hall.  God!  What  fools  we  have  been," 
he  added,  with  a  sudden  bitter  strength.  "  I 
couldn't  have  believed  that  I  could  ever  have  done 
anything  so  clumsy.  Fancy  giving  ourselves  away 
to  a  fool  like  Engleton,  a  self-opinionated  young 
cub  scarcely  out  of  his  cradle." 

He  felt  his  damp  forehead.  The  Princess  was 
watching  him  curiously. 

"  Don't  be  a  fool,  Nigel,"  she  said.  "  We  un- 
derrated Engleton,  that  was  all.  If  ever  a  man 
looked  an  idiot,  he  did,  and  you  must  remember 
that  we  were  in  a  corner.  Yet,"  she  added,  lean- 
ing a  little  forward  in  her  chair  and  gazing  with 
hard,  set  face  into  the  fire,  "  it  was  foolish  of  me. 
With  Jeanne  to  play  with,  I  ought  to  have  had 
no  such  difficulties.  I  never  counted  upon  the 
tradespeople  being  so  unreasonable.  If  they  had 
let  me  finish  the  season  it  would  have  been  all 
right." 

Forrest  walked  restlessly  across  the  room,  and 
stood  for  a  moment  looking  out  of  the  window. 
Outside,  the  wind  had  suddenly  changed.  The 
sunshine  had  departed,  and  a  grey  fog  was  blow- 
ing in  from  the  sea.  He  turned  away  with  a 
shiver. 

"  What  a  cursed  place  this  is !  "  he  muttered. 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES    113 

11  I've  half  a  mind  even  now  to  turn  my  back  upon 
it  and  to  run." 

The  Princess  watched  his  pale  face  scornfully. 

"  I  thought,  Nigel,"  she  said,  "  that  you  were  a 
more  reasonable  person.  Remember  that  if  we 
show  the  white  feather  now,  it  is  the  end  of  every- 
thing—  the  Colonies,  if  you  like,  or  a  little  cheap 
watering-place  at  the  best.  As  for  me,  I  might 
have  a  better  chance  of  brazening  it  out,  but  re- 
member that  I  could  never  afford  to  be  seen  in  the 
company  of  a  suspected  person." 

"  It  was  the  fear  of  losing  you,"  he  muttered, 
"  which  made  me  so  rash." 

The  Princess  laughed  very  softly. 

"  My  dear  friend,"  she  said,  "  I  do  not  believe 
you.  I  may  seem  to  you  sometimes  very  foolish, 
but  at  least  I  understand  this.  Life  with  you  is 
self,  self,  self,  and  nothing  more.  You  have 
scarcely  a  generous  instinct,  scarcely  a  spark  of 
real  affection  left  in  you." 

"  And  yet  —  "  he  began  quietly. 

"  And  yet,"  she  whispered,  repulsing  him  with 
a  little  gesture,  but  with  a  suddenly  altered  look  in 
her  face,  "  and  yet  we  women  are  fools !  " 

She  turned  round  to  meet  her  host,  who  was 
crossing  the  hall,  and  almost  simultaneously  the 
dinner  gong  rang  out.  Their  party  was  perhaps 
a  little  more  cheerful  than  it  had  been  on  any  of 


114      JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

the  last  few  evenings.  Forrest  drank  more  wine 
than  usual,  and  exerted  himself  to  entertain.  Cecil 
followed  his  example,  and  the  Princess,  who  sat 
by  his  side,  looked  often  into  his  face,  and  whis- 
pered now  and  then  in  his  ear.  Jeanne  was  the 
only  one  who  was  a  little  distrait.  She  left  the 
table  early,  as  usual,  and  slipped  out  into  the  gar- 
den. The  Princess,  contrary  to  her  custom,  rose 
from  the  table  and  followed  her.  A  sudden 
change  of  wind  had  blown  the  fog  away,  and  the 
night  was  clear.  The  wind,  however,  had  gath- 
ered force,  and  the  Princess  held  down  her  elabo- 
rately coiffured  hair  and  cried  out  in  dismay. 

"  My  dear  Jeanne,"  she  exclaimed,  "  but  it  is 
barbarous  to  wander  about  outside  a  night  like 
this !  " 

Jeanne  laughed.  Her  own  more  simply  ar- 
ranged hair  was  blown  all  over  her  face. 

"  I  love  it,"  she  explained.  "  You  don't  want 
me  indoors.  I  am  going  to  walk  down  the  grove 
and  look  at  the  sea." 

"  Come  back  into  the  hall  one  moment,"  the 
Princess  said.    "  I  want  to  speak  to  you." 

Jeanne  turned  unwillingly  round,  and  her  step- 
mother drew  her  into  the  shelter  of  the  open 
door. 

"  Jeanne,"  she  said,  "  you  seem  to  meet  your 
friend  the  fisherman  very  often.     If  you  should 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES    115 

see  anything  of  him  to-morrow,  I  wish  you  would 
inquire  particularly  as  to  his  lodger.  You  know 
whom  I  mean,  the  man  who  was  on  the  island 
with  him  yesterday  afternoon." 

Jeanne  looked  at  her  stepmother  curiously. 

"  What  am  I  to  ask  about  him?  "  she  demanded. 

"  Where  he  comes  from,  and  what  he  is  doing 
here,"  the  Princess  said.  "  Find  out  if  you  can  if 
Berners  is  really  his  name.  I  have  a  curious  idea 
about  him,  and  Cecil  fancies  that  he  has  seen  him 
before." 

Jeanne  looked  for  a  minute  interested. 

"  You  are  not  usually  so  curious  about  people," 
she  remarked. 
The  Princess  lowered  her  voice  a  little. 

"  Jeanne,"  she  said,  "  I  will  tell  you  something. 
Lord  Ronald,  when  he  left  here,  was  very  angry 
with  us  all.  There  was  a  quarrel,  and  he  behaved 
very  absurdly.  Cecil  fancies  that  this  man  Ber- 
ners is  a  friend  of  Lord  Ronald's.  We  want  to 
know  if  it  is  so." 

Jeanne  raised  her  head  and  looked  her  step- 
mother steadily  in  the  face. 

"  This  is  all  very  mysterious,"  she  said.  "  I  do 
not  understand  it  at  all.  We  seem  to  be  almost  in 
hiding  here,  seeing  no  one  and  going  nowhere. 
And  I  notice  that  Major  Forrest,  whenever  he 
walks  even  in  the  garden,  is  always  looking  around 


116      JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

as  though  he  were  afraid  of  something.  What  did 
you  quarrel  with  Lord  Ronald  about?" 

11  It  is  no  concern  of  yours,"  the  Princess  an- 
swered, a  little  sharply.  "  Major  Forrest  has  had 
a  somewhat  eventful  career,  and  he  has  made  ene- 
mies. It  was  chiefly  his  quarrel  with  Lord  Ron- 
ald, and  it  was  over  a  somewhat  serious  matter. 
He  has  an  idea  that  this  man  Berners  is  connected 
with  it  in  some  way  or  other.  Do  find  out  if  you 
can,  there's  a  dear  child." 

"  I  do  not  suppose,"  Jeanne  said,  "  that  Mr. 
Andrew  would  know  anything.  However,  when 
I  see  him  I  will  ask  him." 

The  Princess  turned  away  from  the  open  door, 
shivering. 

"You  are  not  really  going  out?"  she  said. 

"  Certainly  I  am,"  Jeanne  answered.  "  I  sup- 
pose you  three  will  play  cards,  and  it  does  not 
interest  me  to  watch  you.  There  is  nothing  which 
interests  me  here  at  all  except  the  gardens  and  the 
sea.  I  am  going  down  to  the  beach,  and  then  I 
shall  sit  there  behind  the  hollyhocks  until  it  is  bed- 


time." 


The  Princess  looked  at  her  curiously. 

You're  a  queer  child,"  she  said,  turning  away. 

It  is  not  strange,  that,"  Jeanne  answered,  with 
a  little  curl  of  the  lips. 

The  Princess  went  back  to  the  library.     Coffee 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     117 

and  liqueurs  had  already  been  served,  and  the  card- 
table  was  set  out,  although  none  of  the  three  had 
the  slightest  inclination  to  play.  Jeanne  walked 
along  the  beach  and  then  came  back  to  her  favour- 
ite seat,  sheltered  by  the  little  grove  of  stunted 
trees  and  the  tall  hollyhocks  which  bordered  the 
garden.  Her  eyes  were  fixed  upon  the  darkening 
sea,  whitened  here  and  there  by  the  long  straight 
line  of  breakers.  The  marshes  on  her  right  hand 
were  hung  with  grey  mists,  floating  about  like 
weird  phantoms,  and  here  and  there  between  them 
shone  the  distant  lights  of  the  village.  She  half 
closed  her  eyes.  The  soft  falling  of  the  waves 
upon  the  sand  below,  and  the  murmur  of  the  wind 
through  the  bushes  and  scanty  trees  was  like  a  lul- 
laby. She  sat  there  she  scarcely  knew  how  long. 
She  woke  up  with  a  start,  conscious  that  two  men 
were  standing  talking  together  within  a  few  yards 
of  her  in  the  rough  lane  that  led  down  to  the  sea. 


CHAPTER    XIV 

The  Princess  was  attempting  a  new  and  very 
complicated  form  of  patience.  Forrest  was  watch- 
ing her.  Their  host  was  making  an  attempt  to 
read  the  newspaper. 

"  In  five  minutes,"  the  Princess  declared,  "  I 
shall  have  achieved  the  impossible.  This  time  I 
am  quite  sure  that  I  am  going  to  do  it." 

A  breathless  silence  followed  her  announcement. 
The  Princess,  looking  up  in  surprise,  found  that 
the  eyes  of  her  two  companions  were  fixed  not  upon 
her  but  upon  the  door.  She  laid  down  her  cards 
and  turned  her  head.  It  was  Jeanne  who  stood 
there,  her  hair  tossed  and  blown  by  the  wind,  her 
face  ashen  white. 

'What  is  the  matter,  child?"  the  Princess  de- 
manded. 

Jeanne  came  a  little  way  into  the  room. 

"  There  were  two  men,"  she  faltered,  "  talking 
in  the  shrubbery  close  to  where  I  was  sitting  behind 
the  hollyhocks.  I  could  not  understand  all  that 
they  said,  but  they  are  coming  here.  They  were 
speaking  of  Lord  Ronald." 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES    119 

"  Go  on,"  Forrest  muttered,  leaning  forward 
with  dilated  eyes. 

"  They  spoke  as  though  something  might  have 
happened  to  him  here,"  the  girl  whispered.  "  Oh ! 
it  is  too  horrible,  this!  What  do  you  think  that 
they  meant?  " 

She  looked  at  the  three  people  who  confronted 
her.  There  was  nothing  reassuring  in  the  faces  of 
the  two  men.  The  Princess  leaned  back  in  her 
chair  and  laughed. 

"  My  dear  child,"  she  said,  "  you  have  been 
asleep  and  dreamed  these  foolish  things;  or  if  not, 
these  yokels  to  whom  you  have  been  listening  are 
mad.  What  harm  do  you  suppose  could  come  to 
Lord  Ronald  here?" 

"  I  do  not  know,"  Jeanne  said,  speaking  in  a 
low  tone,  and  with  the  fear  still  in  her  dark  eyes. 

"  I  told  you,"  the  Princess  continued,  "  that 
there  was  some  sort  of  a  quarrel.  What  of  it? 
Lord  Ronald  simply  chose  to  go  away.  Do  you 
suppose  that  there  is  any  one  here  who  would 
think  of  trying  to  hinder  him?  Look  at  us  three 
and  ask  yourself  if  it  is  likely.  Look  at  Major 
Forrest  here,  for  instance,  who  never  loses  his 
temper,  and  whose  whole  life  is  a  series  of  calcu- 
lations. Or  our  host.  Look  at  him,"  the  Princess 
continued,  with  a  little  wave  of  her  hand.  "  He 
may  have  secrets  that  we  know  nothing  of,  but  if 


120      JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

he  is  a  desperate  criminal,  I  must  say  that  he  has 
kept  the  knowledge  very  well  to  himself.  As  for 
me,  you  know  very  well  that  I  quarrel  with  no  one. 
Le  jeu  ne  vaut  pas  la  peine." 

Jeanne  drew  a  little  breath.  Her  face  was  less 
tragic.  There  was  a  moment's  silence.  Then 
Cecil  de  la  Borne  moved  toward  the  fireplace.  He 
was  pale,  but  his  manner  was  more  composed. 
The  Princess'  speech,  drawn  out,  and  very  slowly 
spoken,  of  deliberate  intent,  had  achieved  its  pur- 
pose. The  first  terror  had  passed  away  from  all 
of  them. 

"  I  will  ring  the  bell,"  Cecil  said,  "  and  find  out 
who  these  trespassers  are,  wandering  about  my 
grounds  at  this  hour  of  the  night.  Or  shall  we  all 
go  out  and  look  for  them  ourselves?" 

"  As  you  will,"  Forrest  answered.  '  Personally, 
I  should  think  that  Miss  Jeanne  has  overheard 
some  gossip  amongst  the  servants,  and  misunder- 
stood it.  However,  this  sort  of  thing  is  just  as 
well  put  a  stop  to." 

A  sudden  peal  rang  through  the  house.  The 
front-door  bell,  a  huge  unwieldy  affair,  seldom 
used,  because,  save  in  the  depths  of  winter,  the 
door  stood  open,  suddenly  sent  a  deep  resonant 
summons  echoing  through  the  house.  The  bare- 
ness and  height  of  the  hall,  and  the  fact  that  the 
room  in  which  they  were  was  quite  close  to  the 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     121 

front  door  itself,  perhaps  accounted  for  the  un- 
usual volume  of  sound  which  seemed  created  by 
that  one  peal.  It  was  more  like  an  alarm  bell, 
ringing  out  into  the  silent  night,  than  any  ordinary 
summons.  Coming  in  the  midst  of  those  tense 
few  seconds,  it  had  an  effect  upon  the  people  who 
heard  it  which  was  almost  indescribable.  Cecil  de 
la  Borne  was  pale  with  the  nervousness  of  the  cow- 
ard, but  Forrest's  terror  was  a  real  and  actual 
thing,  stamped  in  his  white  face,  gleaming  in  his 
sunken  eyes,  as  he  stood  behind  the  card-table  with 
his  head  a  little  thrust  forward  toward  the  door, 
as  though  listening  for  what  might  come  next. 
The  Princess,  if  she  was  in  any  way  discomposed, 
did  not  show  it.  She  sat  erect  in  her  chair,  her 
head  slightly  thrown  back,  her  eyebrows  a  little 
contracted.  It  was  as  though  she  were  asking  who 
had  dared  to  break  in  so  rudely  upon  her  pastime. 
Jeanne  had  sunk  back  into  the  window,  and  was 
sitting  there,  her  hands  clasped  together. 

Cecil  de  la  Borne  glanced  at  the  clock. 

'  It  is  nearly  eleven  o'clock,"  he  said.  "  The 
servants  will  have  gone  to  bed.  I  must  go  and  see 
who  that  is." 

No  one  attempted  to  stop  him.  They  heard  his 
footsteps  go  echoing  down  the  silent  hall.  They 
heard  the  harsh  clanking  of  the  chain  as  he  drew 
it  back,  and  the  opening  of  the  heavy  door.    They 


122      JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

all  looked  at  one  another  in  tense  expectation. 
They  heard  Cecil's  challenge,  and  they  heard  muf- 
fled voices  outside.  Then  there  came  the  closing 
of  the  door,  and  the  sound  of  heavy  footsteps  in 
the  hall.  Forrest  grasped  the  table  with  both 
hands,  and  his  face  was  bloodless.  The  Princess 
leaned  towards  him. 

"  For  God's  sake,  Nigel,"  she  whispered  in  his 
ear,  "  pull  yourself  together!  One  look  into  your 
face  is  enough  to  give  the  whole  show  away.  Even 
Jeanne  there  is  watching  you." 

The  man  made  an  effort.  Even  as  the  footsteps 
drew  near  he  dashed  some  brandy  into  a  tumbler 
and  drank  it  off.  Cecil  de  la  Borne  entered,  fol- 
lowed by  the  man  who  had  been  Andrew's  guest 
and  another,  a  small  dark  person  with  glasses,  and 
a  professional  air.  Cecil,  who  had  been  a  little  in 
front,  turned  round  to  usher  them  in. 

41  I  cannot  keep  you  out  of  my  house,  gentlemen, 
I  suppose,"  he  said,  "  although  I  consider  that 
your  intrusion  at  such  an  hour  is  entirely  unwar- 
rantable. I  regret  that  I  have  no  other  room  in 
which  I  can  receive  you.  What  you  have  to  say 
to  me,  you  can  say  here  before  my  friends.  If  I 
remember  rightly,"  he  added,  "  your  name  is  Ber- 
ners,  and  you  are  lodging  in  this  neighbourhood." 

The  man  who  had  called  himself  Berners  bowed 
to  the  Princess  and  Jeanne  before  replying.     His 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     123 

manner  was  grave,  but  not  in  any  way  threatening. 
His  companion  stood  behind  him  and  remained 
silent. 

"  I  have  called  myself  Berners,"  he  said,  "  be- 
cause it  is  more  convenient  at  times  to  do  so.  I 
am  Richard  Berners,  Duke  of  Westerham.  A 
recent  guest  of  yours  —  Lord  Ronald  —  is  my 
younger  brother." 

The  silence  which  reigned  in  the  room  might 
almost  have  been  felt.  The  Duke,  looking  from 
one  to  the  other,  grew  graver. 

"  I  suppose,"  he  continued,  "  I  ought  to  apolo- 
gize for  coming  here  so  late  at  night,  but  my  solic- 
itor has  only  just  arrived  from  London,  and  re- 
ported to  me  the  result  of  some  inquiries  he  has 
been  making.  Ronald  is  my  favourite  brother, 
although  I  have  not  seen  much  of  him  lately.  I 
trust,  therefore,"  he  continued,  still  speaking  to 
Cecil  de  la  Borne,  "  that  you  will  pardon  my  in- 
trusion when  I  explain  that  from  the  moment  of 
quitting  your  house  my  brother  seems  to  have  com- 
pletely disappeared.  I  have  come  to  ask  you  if 
you  can  give  me  any  information  as  to  the  circum- 
stances of  his  leaving,  and  whether  he  told  you  his 
destination." 

Cecil  de  la  Borne  was  white  to  the  lips,  but  he 
was  on  the  point  of  answering  when  the  Princess 
intervened.     She  leaned  forward  toward  the  new- 


124      JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

comer,  and  her  face  expressed  the  most  genuine 
concern. 

"  My  dear  Duke,"  she  said,  "  this  is  very  ex- 
traordinary news  that  you  bring.  Lord  Ronald 
left  here  for  London.  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  he 
has  never  arrived  there  ?  " 

The  Duke  turned  towards  his  companion. 

"  My  solicitor  here,  Mr.  Hensellman,"  he  said, 
"  has  made  the  most  careful  inquiries,  and  has  even 
gone  so  far  as  to  employ  detectives.  My  brother 
has  certainly  not  returned  to  London.  We  have 
also  wired  to  every  country  house  where  a  visit 
from  him  would  have  been  a  probability,  without 
result.  Under  those  circumstances,  and  others 
which  I  need  not  perhaps  enlarge  upon,  I  must 
confess  to  feeling  some  anxiety  as  to  what  has 
become  of  him." 

Naturally,"   the    Princess   answered    at   once. 

And  yet,"  she  continued,  "  it  is  only  a  few  days 
ago  since  he  left  here.  Your  brother,  Duke,  who 
seemed  to  me  a  most  delightful  young  man,  was 
also  distinctly  peculiar,  and  I  do  not  think  that  the 
fact  of  your  not  being  able  to  hear  of  him  at  his 
accustomed  haunts  for  two  or  three  days  is  in  any 
way  a  matter  which  need  cause  you  any  anxiety." 

The  Duke  bowed. 

"  Madam,"  he  said,  "  I  regret  having  to  differ 
from  you.    I  beg  that  you  will  not  permit  anything 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     125 

which  I  say  to  reflect  upon  yourself  or  upon  Mr. 
De  la  Borne,  whose  honour,  I  am  sure,  is  above 
question.  But  you  have  amongst  you  a  person 
whom  I  am  assured  is  a  very  bad  companion  indeed 
for  boys  of  my  brother's  age.  I  refer  to  you,  sir," 
he  added,  addressing  Forrest. 

Forrest  bowed  ironically. 

"  I  am  exceedingly  obliged  to  you,  sir,"  he  said, 
"  for  your  amiable  opinion,  although  why  you 
should  go  out  of  your  way  to  volunteer  it  here,  I 
cannot  imagine." 

"  I  do  so,  sir,"  the  Duke  answered,  "  because 
during  the  last  two  or  three  days  cheques  for  a 
considerable  amount  have  been  honoured  at  my 
brother's  bank,  bearing  your  endorsement.  I  may 
add,  sir,  that  I  came  down  here  to  see  my  brother. 
I  wished  to  explain  to  him  that  you  were  not  a 
person  with  whom  it  was  advisable  for  him  to  play 
cards." 

Forrest  took  a  quick  step  forward. 

"  Sir,"  he  exclaimed,  "you  are  a  liar!  " 

The  Duke  bowed. 

"  I  do  not  quote  my  own  opinion,"  he  said.  "  I 
speak  from  the  result  of  the  most  careful  investi- 
gations. Your  reputation  you  cannot  deny.  Even 
at  your  own  clubs  men  shrug  their  shoulders  when 
your  name  is  mentioned.  I  will  give  you  the  bene- 
fit of  any  doubt  you  wish.     I  will  simply  say  that 


126      JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

you  are  a  person  who  is  suspected  in  any  assembly 
where  gentlemen  meet  together,  and  that  being 
so,  as  my  brother  has  disappeared  from  this  house 
after  several  nights  spent  in  playing  cards  with 
you,  I  am  here  to  learn  from  you,  and  from  you, 
sir,"  he  added,  turning  to  Cecil  de  la  Borne,  "  some 
further  information  as  to  the  manner  of  my  broth- 
er's departure,  or  to  remain  here  until  I  have  ac- 
quired that  information  for  myself." 

The  Princess  rose  to  her  feet  and  laid  her  hand 
upon  Forrest's  shoulder.  The  veins  were  standing 
out  upon  his  forehead,  and  his  face  was  black  with 
anger.  He  seemed  to  be  in  the  act  of  springing 
upon  the  man  who  made  these  charges  against  him. 

"  Nigel,"  she  said,  "  please  let  me  talk  to  the 
Duke.  Remember  that,  after  all,  from  his  own 
point  of  view,  what  he  is  saying  is  not  so  outra- 
geous as  it  seems  to  us.  Cecil,  please  don't  inter- 
fere," she  added  turning  towards  him.  "  Duke," 
she  continued,  speaking  firmly,  and  with  much  of 
the  amiability  gone  from  her  tone,  "  you  are  play- 
ing the  modern  Don  Quixote  to  an  extent  which 
is  unpardonable,  even  taking  into  account  your 
anxiety  concerning  your  brother.  Lord  Ronald 
was  a  guest  here  of  Mr.  De  la  Borne's,  and  to  the 
best  of  my  knowledge  he  lost  little  more  than  he 
won  all  the  time  he  was  here.  In  any  case,  on 
Major  Forrest's  behalf,  and  as  an  old  friend,  I 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     127 

deny  that  there  was  any  question  whatever  as  to 
the  fairness  of  any  games  that  were  played.  Your 
brother  received  a  telegram,  and  asked  to  be  al- 
lowed the  use  of  the  car  to  take  him  to  Lynn  Sta- 
tion early  on  the  following  morning.  He  promised 
to  return  within  a  week." 

"  You  have  heard  from  him  since  he  left?  "  the 
Duke  asked  quickly. 

"  We  have  not,"  the  Princess  answered.  "  Only 
yesterday  morning  I  remarked  that  it  was  slightly 
discourteous.  Your  brother  left  here  on  excellent 
terms  with  us  all.  You  can  interview,  if  you  will, 
any  member  of  the  household.  You  can  make 
your  inquiries  at  the  station  from  which  he  de- 
parted. Your  appearance  here  at  such  an  untimely 
hour,  and  your  barely  veiled  accusations,  remind 
me  of  the  fable  of  the  bull  in  the  china  shop.  If 
you  think  that  we  have  locked  your  brother  up 
here,  pray  search  the  house.  If  you  think,"  she 
added,  with  curling  lip,  "  that  we  have  murdered 
him,  pray  bring  down  an  army  of  detectives,  invest 
the  place,  and  pursue  your  investigations  in  what- 
ever direction  you  like.  But  before  you  leave,  I 
should  advise  you,  if  you  wish  to  preserve  your 
reputation  as  a  person  of  breeding,  to  apologize 
to  Mr.  De  la  Borne  for  your  extraordinary  beha- 
viour here  to-night,  and  the  extraordinary  things 
at  which  you  have  hinted." 


128      JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES 

The  Duke  smiled  pleasantly. 

"  Madam,"  he  said,  "  I  came  here  to-night  not 
knowing  that  you  were  amongst  the  difficulties 
which  I  should  have  to  deal  with.  I  wish  to  speak 
to  Mr.  De  la  Borne.    You  will  permit  me?  " 

The  Princess  shrugged  her  shoulders  and  turned 
away. 

"  I  have  ventured  to  speak  for  both  of  them," 
she  remarked,  "  for  the  sake  of  peace,  because  I 
am  a  woman  and  can  keep  my  temper,  and  they 
are  men  who  might  have  resented  your  imperti- 


nence." 


The  Duke  remained  as  though  he  had  not  heard 
her  speech.  He  laid  his  hand  upon  Cecil's  shoul- 
der. 

"  De  la  Borne,"  he  said,  "  you  and  I  are  scarcely 
strangers,  although  we  have  never  met.  There 
have  been  friendships  in  our  families  for  many 
years.  Don't  be  afraid  to  speak  out  if  anything 
has  gone  a  little  wrong  here  and  you  are  ashamed 
of  it.  I  want  to  be  your  friend,  as  you  know  very 
well.  Tell  me,  now.  Can't  you  help  me  to  find 
Ronald.    Haven't  you  any  idea  where  he  is?  " 

"  None  at  all,"  Cecil  answered. 

"  Tell  me  this,  then,"  the  Duke  said,  his  clear 
brown  eyes  fixed  steadily  upon  Cecil's  miserable 
white  face.  "  Were  there  any  unusual  circum- 
stances at  all  connected  with  his  leaving  here?' 


JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES     129 

"  None  whatever,"  Cecil  answered,  with  an  un- 
easy little  laugh,  "  except  that  I  had  to  get  up  to 
see  him  oft,  and  it  was  a  beastly  cold  morn- 
ing." 

The  lawyer,  who  had  been  standing  silent  all 
this  time,  drew  the  Duke  for  a  moment  on  one 
side. 

"  I  should  recommend,  sir,"  he  whispered, 
"  that  we  went  away.  If  they  know  anything 
they  do  not  mean  to  tell,  and  the  less  we  let  them 
know  as  to  whether  we  are  satisfied  or  not,  the 
better." 

The  Duke  nodded,  and  turned  once  more  to 
Cecil. 

"  I  am  forced  to  accept  your  word,  Mr.  De  la 
Borne,"  he  said,  "  and  when  my  brother  confirms 
your  story  I  shall  make  a  special  visit  here  to  offer 
you  my  apologies.  Madam,"  he  added,  bowing 
to  the  Princess,  "  I  regret  to  have  disturbed  your 
interesting  occupation." 

Forrest  he  completely  ignored,  turning  his  back 
upon  him  almost  immediately.  Cecil  went  out 
with  them  into  the  hall.  In  a  moment  the  great 
front  door  was  opened  and  closed.  Cecil  came 
back  into  the  room,  and  the  perspiration  stood 
out  in  great  beads  upon  his  forehead.  Now  that 
the  Duke  had  departed,  something  seemed  to  have 
fallen  from  their  faces.    They  looked  at  one  an- 


130      JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

other  as  the  ghosts  of  their  real  selves  might  have 
looked.  Forrest  stumbled  toward  the  sideboard. 
Cecil  was  already  there. 

"  The  brandy!  "  he  muttered.     "  Quick!  " 


CHAPTER   XV 

Bareheaded,  Jeanne  walked  upon  the  yellow 
sands  close  to  the  softly  breaking  waves.  Inland 
stretched  the  marshes,  with  their  patches  of  vivid 
green,  their  clouds  of  faintly  blue  wild  lavender, 
their  sinuous  creeks  stealing  into  the  bosom  of  the 
land.  She  climbed  on  to  a  grassy  knoll,  warm  with 
the  sun's  heat,  and  threw  herself  down  upon  the 
turf.  She  turned  her  back  upon  the  Hall  and 
looked  steadily  seawards,  across  the  waste  of  sands 
and  pasture-land  to  where  sky  and  sea  met.  Here 
at  least  was  peace.  She  drew  a  long  breath  of 
relief,  cast  aside  the  book  which  she  had  never 
dreamed  of  reading,  and  lay  full  length  in  the 
grass,  with  her  eyes  upturned  to  where  a  lark  was 
singing  his  way  down  from  the  blue  sky. 

Andrew  came  before  long,  speeding  his  way  out 
of  the  village  harbour  in  his  little  catboat.  She 
watched  him  cross  the  sandy  bar  of  the  inlet,  and 
run  his  boat  presently  upon  the  beach  below  where 
she  sat.  Then  she  shook  out  her  skirts  and  made 
room  for  him  by  her  side. 


132      JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

"  Really,  Mr.  Andrew,"  she  said,  resting  her 
chin  upon  her  hands,  and  looking  up  at  him  with 
her  full  dark  eyes,  "  you  are  becoming  almost  gal- 
lant. Until  now,  when  I  have  been  weary,  and 
have  wished  to  talk  to  you,  I  have  had  almost  to 
come  and  fetch  you.  To-day  it  is  you  who  come 
to  me.    That  is  a  good  sign." 

"  It  is  true,"  he  admitted.  "  I  have  kept  my 
telescope  fixed  upon  the  sands  here  for  more  than 
an  hour.    I  wanted  to  see  you." 

"  You  have  something  to  tell  me  about  last 
night?  "  she  asked  gravely. 

"  No !  "  he  answered,  "  I  did  not  come  here  to 
talk  about  that." 

"  Did  you  know,"  she  asked,  "  who  your  lodger 
really  was?  " 

"Yes,"  he  said,  "I  guessed!  I  will  be  frank 
with  you,  Miss  Jeanne,  if  you  will  allow  me.  I 
do  not  like  your  stepmother  and  I  do  not  like 
Major  Forrest,  but  I  think  that  the  Duke  is  going 
altogether  too  far  when  he  suspects  them  of  hav- 
ing anything  to  do  with  the  disappearance  of  his 
brother." 

She  drew  a  little  sigh  of  relief. 

"  Oh !  I  am  glad  to  hear  you  say  that,"  she  de- 
clared. "  It  is  all  so  horrible.  I  could  not  sleep 
last  night  for  thinking  about  it." 

"  Lord  Ronald  will  probably  turn  up  in  a  day 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     133 

or  two,"  Andrew  said  gravely.  "  We  will  not  talk 
any  more  about  him." 

She  settled  herself  a  little  more  comfortably, 
and  smoothed  out  her  skirts.  Then  she  looked  up 
at  him  with  faintly  parted  lips. 

"  What  shall  we  talk  about,  Mr.  Andrew?  "  she 
said  softly. 

"  About  ourselves,"  he  answered,  "  or  rather 
about  you.  It  seems  to  me  that  we  both  stand  a 
little  outside  the  game  of  life,  as  your  friends  up 
there  understand  it." 

He  waved  his  large  brown  hand  in  the  direction 
of  the  Hall. 

"  You  are  a  child,  fresh  from  boarding-school, 
too  young  to  understand,  too  young  to  know  where 
to  look  for  your  friends,  or  discriminate  against 
your  enemies.  I  am  a  rough  sort  of  fellow,  also, 
outside  their  lives,  from  necessity,  from  every  rea- 
son which  the  brain  of  man  could  evolve.  Some- 
times we  outsiders  see  more  than  is  intended.  Is 
the  Princess  of  Strurm  really  your  stepmother?  " 

"  Of  course  she  is,"  Jeanne  answered.  "  She 
was  married  to  my  father  when  I  was  quite  a  little 
girl,  and  she  has  visited  me  at  the  convent  where 
I  was  at  school,  all  my  life,  and  when  I  left  last 
year  it  was  she  who  came  for  me.  Why  do  you  ask 
so  strange  a  question?  " 

"  Because,"   he   said,    "  I   should    consider   her 


134      JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

about  the  worst  possible  guardian  that  a  child  like 
you  could  have.  Tell  me,  what  is  it  that  goes  on 
all  day  up  at  the  Hall  there  —  or  rather  what  was 
it  that  did  go  on  before  Engleton  went  away?  — 
eating  and  drinking,  cards,  and  God  knows  what 
sort  of  foolishness !  Nothing  else,  nothing  worth 
doing,  not  a  thing  said  worth  listening  to !  It's 
a  rotten  life  for  a  child  like  you.  They  tell  me 
you're  an  heiress.    Are  you?  " 

She  smoothed  her  crumpled  skirts,  and  looked 
steadily  at  the  tip  of  her  brown  shoe. 

"  One  of  the  greatest  in  Europe,"  she  answered. 
"  No  one  knows  how  rich  I  am.  You  see  all  the 
money  was  left  to  me  when  I  was  six  years  old, 
and  it  is  so  strictly  tied  up  that  no  one  has  had 
power  to  touch  a  single  penny  until  I  am  of  age. 
That  is  why  it  has  gone  on  increasing  and  increas- 
ing." 

"  And  when  are  you  of  age?  "  he  asked. 

"  Next  year,"  she  answered. 

"  By  that  time,  I  imagine,"  Andrew  continued, 
"  your  stepmother  will  have  sold  you  to  some 
broken-down  hanger-on  of  hers.  Haven't  you  any 
other  relations,  Miss  Jeanne?  " 

She  laughed  softly. 

"  You  are  a  ridiculous  person,"  she  said.  "  I 
am  very  fond  of  my  stepmother.  I  think  that  she 
is  a  very  clever  woman." 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     135 

11  Bah ! '  he  exclaimed  in  disgust.  "  A  clever 
woman  she  may  be,  but  a  good  woman,  no!  I 
am  sure  of  that.  You  may  judge  a  person  by  the 
company  they  keep.  Neither  she  or  this  man  For- 
rest are  fit  associates  for  a  child  of  your  age." 

She  laughed  softly. 

"  They  don't  do  me  any  harm,"  she  said.  "  Mr. 
De  la  Borne  and  Lord  Ronald  have  asked  me  to 
marry  them,  of  course,  but  then  every  young  man 
does  that  when  he  knows  who  I  am.  My  step- 
mother has  promised  me  at  least  that  I  shall  not 
be  bothered  by  any  of  them  just  yet.  I  am  going 
to  be  presented  next  season,  we  are  going  to  have 
a  house  in  town,  and  I  am  going  to  choose  a  hus- 
band of  my  own." 

It  was  Andrew  now  who  looked  long  and  stead- 
ily out  seawards.  She  watched  him  covertly  from 
under  her  heavily  lidded  eyes. 

"  Mr.  Andrew,"  she  said  softly,  "  I  wish  very 
much  —  " 

Then  she  stopped  short,  and  he  looked  at  her  a 
little  abruptly. 

"  What  is  it  that  you  wish?  "  he  asked. 

"  I  wish  that  you  did  not  wear  such  strange 
clothes  and  that  you  did  not  talk  the  dialect  of 
these  fishermen,  and  that  you  had  more  money. 
Then  you  too  might  come  and  see  me,  might  you 
not,  when  we  have  that  house  in  London? ' 


136      JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

He  laughed  boisterously. 

"  I  fancy  I  see  myself  in  London,  paying  calls," 
he  declared.  "  Give  me  my  catboat  and  fishing 
line.  I'd  rather  sail  down  the  home  creek,  with 
a  northeast  gale  in  my  teeth,  than  walk  down  Pic- 
cadilly in  patent  boots." 

She  sighed. 

"  I  am  afraid,"  she  admitted,  "  that  as  a  town 
acquaintance  you  are  hopeless." 

"  I  am  afraid  so,"  he  answered,  looking  steadily 
seawards.  "  We  country  people  have  strong  prej- 
udices, you  see.  It  seems  to  us  that  all  the  sin  and 
all  the  unhappiness  and  all  the  decadence  and  all 
the  things  that  mar  the  beauty  of  the  world,  come 
from  the  cities  and  from  life  in  the  cities.  No 
wonder  that  we  want  to  keep  away.  It  isn't  that 
we  think  ourselves  better  than  the  other  folk.  It 
is  simply  that  we  have  realized  pleasures  greater 
than  we  could  find  in  paved  streets  and  under 
smoke-stained  skies.  We  know  what  it  is  to  smell 
the  salt  wind,  to  hear  it  whistling  in  the  cords  and 
the  sails  of  our  boats,  to  feel  the  warmth  of  the 
sun,  to  listen  to  the  song  of  the  birds,  to  watch  the 
colouring  of  God's  land  here.  I  suppose  we  have 
the  thing  in  our  bloods ;  we  can't  leave  it.  We 
hear  the  call  of  the  other  things  sometimes,  but 
as  soon  as  we  obey  we  are  restless  and  unhappy. 
It   is    only    an    affair   of   time,    and    generally    a 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     137 

very  short  time.  One  cannot  fight  against  na- 
ture." 

"No!"  she  answered  softly.  "One  cannot 
fight  against  nature.  But  there  are  children  of  the 
cities,  children  of  the  life  artificial  as  well  as  chil- 
dren of  nature.    Look  at  me !  " 

He  turned  toward  her  quickly. 

"  Look  at  me  !  "  she  commanded,  and  he  obeyed. 

He  saw  her  pale  skin,  which  the  touch  of  the 
sun  seemed  to  have  no  power  to  burn  or  coarsen. 
The  clear,  wonderful  eyes,  the  delicate  eyebrows, 
the  masses  of  dark  hair,  the  scarlet  lips.  He  saw 
her  white  throat  swelling  underneath  her  muslin 
blouse.  The  daintiness  of  her  gown,  airy  and  sim- 
ple, yet  fresh  from  a  Paris  workshop.  The  stock- 
ings and  shoes,  exquisite,  but  strangely  out  of  place 
with  their  high  heels  buried  in  the  sand. 

"  How  do  I  know,"  she  demanded,  "  that  I  am 
not  one  of  the  children  of  the  cities,  that  I  was  not 
fashioned  and  made  for  the  gas-lit  life,  to  eat  un- 
real food  at  unreal  hours,  and  feed  my  brain  upon 
the  unreal  epigrams  of  the  men  whom  you  would 
call  decadents.  Two  days  here,  a  week  —  very 
well.  In  a  month  I  might  be  bored.  Who  shall 
guarantee  me  against  it?  ' 

"  No  one,"  he  answered.  "  And  yet  there  is 
something  in  your  blood  which  calls  for  the  truth, 
which  hates  the  shams,  which  knows  real  beauty. 


138      JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

Why  don't  you  try  and  cultivate  it?  In  your  heart 
you  know  where  the  true  things  lie.  Consider! 
Every  one  with  great  wealth  can  make  or  mar 
many  lives.  You  enter  the  world  almost  as  a 
divinity.  Your  wealth  is  reckoned  as  a  quality. 
What  you  do  will  be  right.  What  you  condemn 
will  be  wrong.  It  is  a  very  important  thing  for 
others  as  well  as  yourself,  that  you  should  see  a 
clear  way  through  life." 

A  moment's  intense  dejection  seized  upon  her. 
The  tears  stood  in  her  eyes  as  she  looked  away 
from  him. 

"Who  is  there  to  show  it  me?'  she  asked. 
"  Who  is  there  to  help  me  find  it?  ' 

"  Not  those  friends  whom  you  have  left  to  play 
bridge  in  a  room  with  drawn  curtains  at  this  hour 
of  the  day,"  he  answered.  "  Not  your  stepmother, 
or  any  of  her  sort.  Try  and  realize  this.  Even  the 
weakest  of  us  is  not  dependent  upon  others  for 
support.  There  is  only  one  sure  guide.  Trust 
yourself.  Be  faithful  to  the  best  part  of  yourself. 
You  know  what  is  good  and  what  is  ugly.  Don't 
be  coerced,  don't  be  led  into  the  morass." 

She  looked  at  him  and  laughed  gaily.  Her 
mood  had  changed  once  more  with  chameleon-like 
swiftness. 

"  It  is  all  very  well  for  you,"  she  declared. 
"  You  are  six  foot  four,  and  you  look  as  though 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     139 

you  could  hew  your  way  through  life  with  a  cudgel. 
One  could  fancy  you  a  Don  Quixote  amongst  the 
shams,  knocking  them  over  like  ninepins,  and  mov- 
ing aside  neither  to  the  right  nor  to  the  left.  But 
what  is  a  poor  weak  girl  to  do?  She  wants  some 
one,  Mr.  Andrew,  to  wield  the  cudgel  for  her." 

It  was  several  seconds  before  he  turned  his  head. 
Then  he  found  that,  although  her  lips  were  laugh- 
ing, her  eyes  were  longing  and  serious.  She  sprang 
suddenly  to  her  feet  and  leaned  towards  him. 

"  This  is  the  most  delightful  nonsense,"  she 
whispered.     "  Please!  " 

She  was  in  his  arms  for  a  moment,  her  lips  had 
clung  to  his.  Then  she  was  away,  flying  along  the 
sands  at  a  pace  which  seemed  to  him  miraculous, 
swinging  her  hat  in  her  hands,  and  humming  the 
maddening  refrain  of  some  French  song,  which  it 
seemed  to  him  was  always  upon  her  lips,  and 
which  had  haunted  him  for  days.  He  hesitated, 
uncertain  whether  to  follow,  ashamed  of  himself, 
ashamed  of  the  passion  which  was  burning  in  his 
blood.  And  while  he  hesitated  she  passed  out  of 
sight,  turning  only  once  to  wave  her  hand  as  she 
crossed  the  line  of  grass-grown  hillocks  which  shut 
him  out  from  her  view. 


CHAPTER   XVI 

"  To  -  morrow,"  the  Princess  said  softly,  "  we 
shall  have  been  here  a  fortnight." 

Cecil  de  la  Borne  came  and  sat  by  her  side  upon 
the  sofa. 

"  I  am  afraid,"  he  said,  "  that  leaving  out  every- 
thing else,  you  have  been  terribly  bored." 

"  I  have  been  nothing  of  the  sort,"  she  answered. 
"  Of  course,  the  last  week  has  been  a  strain,  but 
we  are  not  going  to  talk  any  more  about  that. 
You  prepared  us  for  semi-barbarism,  and  instead 
you  have  made  perfect  sybarites  of  us.  I  can  as- 
sure you  that  though  in  one  way  to  go  will  be  a 
release,  in  another  I  shall  be  very  sorry." 

"  And  I,"  he  said,  in  a  low  tone,  "  shall  always 
be  sorry." 

He  let  his  hand  fall  upon  hers,  and  looked  into 
her  eyes.  The  Princess  stifled  a  yawn.  This  coun- 
try style  of  love-making  was  a  thing  which  she  had 
outgrown  many  years  ago. 

"  You  will  find  other  distractions  very  soon," 
she  said,  "  and  besides,  the  world  is  a  small  place. 
We  shall  see  something  of  you,  I  suppose,  always. 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     141 

By  the  by,  you  have  not  been  particularly  attentive 
to  my  stepdaughter  during  the  last  few  days,  have 
you?" 

"  She  gives  me  very  little  chance,"  he  answered, 
in  a  slightly  aggrieved  tone. 

"  She  is  very  young,"  the  Princess  said,  '  too 
young,  I  suppose,  to  take  things  seriously.  I  do 
not  think  that  she  will  marry  very  early." 

Cecil  bent  over  his  companion  till  his  head  al- 
most touched  hers. 

"  Dear  lady,"  he  said,  "  I  am  afraid  that  I  am 
not  very  interested  in  your  stepdaughter  while  you 
are  here." 

"  Absurd !  "  she  murmured.  "  I  am  nearly  twice 
your  age." 

"  If  you  were,"  he  answered,  "  so  much  the 
better,  but  you  are  not.  Do  you  know,  I  think 
that  you  have  been  rather  unkind  to  me.  I  have 
scarcely  seen  you  alone  since  you  have  been  here." 

She  laughed  softly,  and  took  up  her  little  dog 
into  her  arm  as  though  to  use  him  for  a  shield. 

"  My  dear  Cecil,"  she  said  earnestly,  "  please 
don't  make  love  to  me.  I  like  you  so  much,  and 
I  should  hate  to  feel  that  you  were  boring  me. 
Every  man  with  whom  I  am  alone  for  ten  minutes 
thinks  it  his  duty  to  say  foolish  things  to  me,  and 
I  can  assure  you  that  I  am  past  it  all.  A  few  years 
ago  it  was  different.    To-day  there  are  only  three 


142      JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES 

things  in  the  world  I  care  for  —  my  little  spaniel 
here,  bridge,  and  money." 

His  face  darkened  a  little. 

"  You  did  not  talk  like  this  in  London,"  he 
reminded  her. 

"  Perhaps  not,"  she  admitted.  "  Perhaps  even 
now  it  is  only  a  mood  with  me.  I  can  only  speak 
as  I  feel  for  the  moment.  There  are  times  when 
I  feel  differently,  but  not  now." 

"  Perhaps,"  he  said  jealously,  '  there  are  also 
other  people  with  whom  you  feel  differently." 

"  Perhaps,"  she  admitted  calmly. 

"  When  I  came  into  the  room  the  other  day," 
he  said,  "  Forrest  was  holding  your  hand." 

"  Major  Forrest,"  she  said,  "  has  been  very 
much  upset.  He  needed  a  little  consolation.  He 
has  some  other  engagements,  and  he  ought  to  have 
left  before  now,  but,  as  you  know,  we  are  all  pris- 
oners.   I  wonder  how  long  it  will  last." 

"  I  cannot  tell,"  Cecil  answered  gloomily. 
"  Forrest  knows  more  about  it  than  I  do.  What 
does  he  say  to  you?  " 

"  He  thinks,"  the  Princess  said  slowly,  "  that  we 
may  be  able  to  leave  in  a  few  days  now." 

"  Then  while  you  do  stay,"  Cecil  begged,  "  be 
a  little  kinder  to  me." 

She  withdrew  her  hand  from  her  dog  and  patted 
his  for  a  moment. 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     143 

"  You  foolish  boy,"  she  said.  "  Of  course  I 
will  be  a  little  kinder  to  you,  if  you  like,  but  I  warn 
you  that  I  shall  only  be  a  disappointment.  Boys 
of  your  age  always  expect  so  much,  and  I  have  so 
little  to  give." 

"  Why  do  you  say  that?  "  he  asked. 

She  shrugged  her  shoulders. 

"  Because  it  is  the  truth,"  she  answered.  "  You 
must  not  expect  anything  more  from  me  than  the 
husk  of  things.  Believe  me,  I  am  not  a  poseuse. 
I  really  mean  it." 

"  You  may  change  your  mind,"  he  said. 

"  I  may,"  she  answered.  "  I  have  no  convic- 
tions, and  my  enemies  would  add,  no  principles. 
If  any  one  could  make  me  feel  the  things  which  I 
have  forgotten  how  to  feel,  I  myself  am  perfectly 
willing!  But  don't  hope  too  much  from  that. 
And  do,  there's  a  dear  boy,  go  and  stop  my  maid. 
I  can  see  her  on  her  way  down  the  drive  there. 
She  has  some  telegrams  I  gave  her,  and  I  want 
to  send  another." 

Cecil  hurried  out,  and  the  Princess,  moving  to 
the  window,  beckoned  to  Forrest,  who  was  loung- 
ing in  a  wicker  chair  with  a  cigarette  in  his  mouth. 

"  Nigel,"  she  said,  "  how  much  longer?  " 

Forrest  looked  despondently  at  his  cigarette. 

"  I  cannot  tell,"  he  answered.  "  Perhaps  one 
day,  perhaps  a  week,  perhaps  —  " 


144      JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

"  No  !  "  the  Princess  interrupted,  "  I  do  not  wish 
to  hear  that  eventuality." 

"  You  know  that  the  Duke  is  still  about?  "  For- 
rest said  gloomily.  "  I  saw  him  this  morning. 
There  has  been  a  fellow,  too  —  a  detective,  of 
course  —  enquiring  about  the  car  and  who  was 
able  to  drive  it." 

"  But  that,"  the  Princess  interrupted,  "  is  all  in 
our  favour.  You  were  seen  to  bring  it  back  up  the 
drive  about  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning." 

Forrest  nodded. 

"  Don't  let's  talk  about  it,"  he  said.  "  Where  is 
Jeanne?    Do  you  know?" 

The  Princess  pointed  toward  the  lawn  to  where 
Cecil  and  Jeanne  were  just  starting  a  game  of 
croquet.  Forrest  watched  them  for  a  few  minutes 
meditatively. 

"  Ena,"  he  said,  dropping  his  voice  a  little, 
"what  are  you  going  to  do  with  that  child?  I 
have  never  quite  understood  your  plans.  You 
promised  to  talk  to  me  about  it  while  we  were 
down  here." 

"  I  know,"  the  Princess  answered,  "  only  this 
other  affair  has  driven  everything  out  of  our  minds. 
What  I  should  like  to  do,"  she  continued,  "  is  to 
marry  her  before  she  comes  of  age,  if  I  can  find 
any  one  willing  to  pay  the  price." 

"The  price?"  he  repeated  doubtfully. 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     145 

The  Princess  nodded. 

"  Supposing,"  she  continued,  "  that  her  fortune 
amounted  to  nearly  four  hundred  thousand  pounds, 
I  think  that  twenty-five  thousand  pounds  would 
be  a  very  moderate  sum  for  any  one  to  pay  for  a 
wife  with  such  a  dowry." 

"  Have  you  any  one  in  your  mind?  "  he  asked. 

The  Princess  nodded. 

"  I  have  a  friend  in  Paris  who  is  making  some 
cautious  inquiries,"  she  answered.  "  I  am  expect- 
ing to  hear  from  her  in  the  course  of  a  few  days." 

"  So  far,"  he  remarked,  "  you  have  made  noth- 
ing out  of  your  guardianship  except  a  living  allow- 
ance." 

She  nodded. 

"  And  a  ridiculously  small  one,"  she  remarked. 
44  All  that  I  have  had  is  two  thousand  a  year.  I 
need  not  tell  you,  my  dear  Nigel,  that  that  does  not 
go  very  far  when  it  has  to  provide  dresses  and 
servants  and  a  home  for  both  of  us.  Jeanne  is 
content,  and  never  grumbles,  or  her  lawyers  might 
ask  some  very  inconvenient  questions." 

"  Supposing,"  he  asked,  "  that  she  won't  have 
anything  to  do  with  this  man,  when  you  have  found 
one  who  is  willing  to  pay?  " 

"  Until  she  is  of  age,"  the  Princess  answered, 
"  she  is  mine  to  do  what  T  like  with,  body  and  soul. 
The  French  law  is  stricter  than  the  English  in  this 


146      JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

respect,  you  know.  There  may  be  a  little  trouble, 
of  course,  but  I  shall  know  how  to  manage  her." 

"  She  has  likes  and  dislikes  of  her  own,"  he  re- 
marked, "  and  fairly  positive  ones.  I  believe  if 
she  had  her  own  way,  she  would  spend  all  her  time 
with  this  fisherman  here." 

The  Princess  smoothed  the  lace  upon  her  gown, 
and  gazed  reflectively  at  the  turquoises  upon  her 
white  fingers. 

"  Jeanne's  father,"  she  remarked,  "  was  bour- 
geois, and  her  mother  had  little  family.  Race  tells, 
of  course.  I  have  never  attempted  to  influence  her. 
When  there  is  a  great  struggle  ahead,  it  is  as  well 
to  let  her  have  her  own  way  in  small  things. 
Hush !  She  is  coming.  I  suppose  the  croquet  has 
been  a  failure." 

Jeanne  came  across  to  them,  swinging  her  mallet 
in  her  hand. 

"  Will  some  one,"  she  begged,  "  take  our  too 
kind  host  away  from  me?  He  follows  me  every- 
where, and  I  am  bored.  I  have  played  croquet 
with  him,  but  he  is  not  satisfied.  If  I  try  to  read, 
he  comes  and  sits  by  my  side  and  talks  nonsense. 
If  I  say  I  am  going  for  a  walk,  he  wants  to  come 
with  me.    I  am  tired  of  it." 

The  Princess  looked  at  her  stepdaughter  crit- 
ically. Jeanne  was  dressed  in  white,  with  a  great 
red  rose  stuck  through  her  waistband.     She  was 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     147 

paler  even  than  usual,  her  eyes  were  dark  and  lu- 
minous, and  the  curve  of  her  scarlet  lips  suggested 
readily  enough  the  weariness  of  which  she  spoke. 

The  Princess  shrugged  her  shoulders  and  gath- 
ered up  her  skirts. 

"  Do  what  you  like,  my  dear,"  she  said.  '  I 
will  tell  Cecil  to  leave  you  alone.  But  remember 
that  he  is  our  host.  You  must  really  be  civil  to 
him." 

She  strolled  across  the  lawn  to  where  Cecil  was 
still  knocking  the  croquet  balls  about.  Jeanne  sank 
into  her  place,  and  Forrest  looked  at  her  for  a  few 
moments  attentively. 

"  You  are  a  strange  child,"  he  said  at  last. 

She  glanced  towards  him  as  though  she  found 
his  speech  an  impertinence.  Then  she  looked  away 
across  the  old-fashioned,  strangely  arranged  gar- 
den, with  its  irregular  patches  of  many  coloured 
flowers,  its  wind-swept  shrubs,  its  flag-staff  rising 
from  the  grassy  knoll  at  the  seaward  extremity. 
She  watched  the  seagulls,  wheeling  in  from  the 
sea,  and  followed  the  line  of  smoke  of  a  distant 
steamer.  She  seemed  to  find  all  these  things  more 
interesting  than  conversation. 

"  You  do  not  like  me,"  he  remarked  quietly. 
"  You  have  never  liked  me." 

"  I  have  liked  very  few  of  my  stepmother's 
friends,"  she  answered,  "  any  more  than  I  like  the 


148      JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

life  which  I  have  been  compelled  to  lead  since  I 
left  school." 

"  You  would  prefer  to  be  back  there,  perhaps?  ' 
he  remarked,  a  little  sarcastically. 

"  I  should,"  she  answered.  "  It  was  prison  of 
a  sort,  but  one  was  at  least  free  to  choose  one's 
friends." 

"  If,"  he  suggested,  "  you  could  make  up  your 
mind  that  I  was  a  person  at  any  rate  to  be  tol- 
erated, I  think  that  I  could  make  things  easier  for 
you.  Your  stepmother  is  always  inclined  to  follow 
my  advice,  and  I  could  perhaps  get  her  to  take  you 
to  quieter  places,  where  you  could  lead  any  sort  of 
life  you  liked." 

"  Thank  you,"  she  answered.  "  Before  very 
long  I  shall  be  my  own  mistress.  Until  then  I 
must  make  the  best  of  things.  If  you  wish  to  do 
something  for  me  you  can  answer  a  question." 

"  Ask  it,  then,"  he  begged  at  once.  "  If  I  can, 
I  shall  be  only  too  glad." 

"  You  can  tell  me  something  which  since  the 
other  night,"  she  said,  "  has  been  worrying  me  a 
good  deal.  You  can  tell  me  who  it  was  that  drove 
Lord  Ronald  to  the  station  the  morning  he  went 
away.  I  thought  that  he  sent  his  chauffeur  away 
two  days  ago,  and  that  there  was  no  one  here  who 
could  drive  the  car." 

Forrest  was  momentarily  taken  aback.     He  an- 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     149 

swered,  however,  with  scarcely  any  noticeable  hesi- 
tation. 

"  I  did,"  he  answered.  "  I  didn't  make  much 
of  a  job  of  it,  and  the  car  has  been  scarcely  fit  to 
use  since,  but  I  managed  it  somehow,  or  rather  we 
did  between  us.  He  came  and  knocked  me  up 
about  five  o'clock,  and  begged  me  to  come  and 
try." 

She  looked  at  him  with  peculiar  steadfastness. 
There  was  nothing  in  her  eyes  or  her  expression 
to  suggest  belief  or  disbelief  in  his  words. 

"  But  I  have  heard  you  say  so  often,"  she  re- 
marked, "  that  you  knew  absolutely  nothing  about 
the  mechanism  of  a  car,  and  that  you  would  not 
drive  one  for  anything  in  the  world." 

He  nodded. 

"  I  am  not  proud  of  my  skill,"  he  answered, 
"  but  I  did  try  at  Homburg  once.  There  was 
nothing  else  to  do,  and  I  had  some  idea  of  buying 
a  small  car  for  touring  in  the  Black  Forest.  If 
you  doubt  my  words,  you  can  ask  any  of  the  serv- 
ants. They  saw  me  bring  the  car  up  the  avenue 
later  in  the  morning." 

"  It  was  being  dragged  up,"  she  reminded  him. 
"  The  engine  was  not  going." 

He  looked  a  little  startled. 

"  It  had  only  just  gone  wrong,"  he  said.  "  I 
had  brought  it  all  the  way  from  Lynn." 


150      JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

She  rose  to  her  feet. 

"  Thank  you  for  answering  my  question,"  she 
said.    "  I  am  going  for  a  walk  now." 

He  leaned  quite  close  to  her. 

"  Alone?  "  he  asked  suggestively. 

She  swept  away  without  even  looking  at  him. 
He  shrugged  his  shoulders  as  he  resumed  his  seat. 

"  I  am  not  sure,"  he  said  reflectively,  as  he  lit 
a  cigarette,  "  that  Ena  will  find  that  young  woman 
so  easy  to  deal  with  as  she  imagines !  " 


CHAPTER   XVII 

Andrew  looked  up  from  his  gardening,  startled 
by  the  sudden  peal  of  thunder.  Absorbed  in  his 
task,  he  had  not  noticed  the  gathering  storm.  The 
sky  was  black  with  clouds,  riven  even  while  he 
looked  with  a  vivid  flash  of  forked  lightning.  The 
ground  beneath  his  feet  seemed  almost  to  shake 
beneath  that  second  peal  of  thunder.  In  the  still- 
ness that  followed  he  heard  the  cry  of  a  woman  in 
distress.  He  threw  down  his  spade  and  raced  to 
the  other  side  of  the  garden.  About  twenty  yards 
from  the  shore,  Jeanne,  in  a  small  boat,  was  row- 
ing toward  the  island.  She  was  pulling  at  the  great 
oars  with  feeble  strokes,  and  making  no  headway 
against  the  current  which  was  sweeping  down  the 
tidal  way.  There  was  no  time  for  hesitation.  An- 
drew threw  off  his  coat,  and  wading  into  the  water, 
reached  her  just  in  time.  He  clambered  into  the 
boat  and  took  the  oars  from  her  trembling  fingers. 
He  was  not  a  moment  too  soon,  for  the  long  tidal 
waves  were  rushing  in  now  before  the  storm.  He 
bent  to  his  task,  and  drove  the  boat  safely  on  to 


152      JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES 

the  beach.  Then  he  stood  up,  dripping,  and 
handed  her  out. 

"  My  dear  young  lady,"  he  said,  a  little 
brusquely,  and  forgetting  for  the  moment  his  Nor- 
folk dialect,  "  what  on  earth  are  you  about  in  that 
little  boat  all  by  yourself?  " 

She  was  still  frightened,  and  she  looked  at  him 
a  little  piteously. 

"  Please  don't  be  angry  with  me,"  she  said.  "  I 
wanted  to  come  here  and  see  you,  to  —  to  ask  your 
advice.  The  boat  was  lying  there,  and  it  looked 
such  a  very  short  distance  across,  and  directly  I 
had  started  the  big  waves  began  to  come  in  and 
I  was  frightened." 

The  storm  broke  upon  them.  Another  peal  of 
thunder  was  followed  by  a  downpour  of  rain.  He 
caught  hold  of  her  hand. 

"  Run  as  hard  as  you  can,"  he  said. 

They  reached  the  cottage,  breathless.  He  ush- 
ered her  into  his  little  sitting-room. 

"  Has  your  friend  gone?  "  she  asked. 

"  Yes!  "  he  answered.     "  He  went  last  night." 

"  I  am  glad,"  she  declared.  "  I  wanted  to  see 
you  alone.  You  said  that  he  was  lodging  here,  did 
you  not?  " 

Andrew  nodded. 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  "  but  he  only  stayed  for  a  few 
days." 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     153 

"You  have  an  extra  room  here,  then?"  she 
asked. 

"  Certainly,"  he  answered,  wondering  a  little  at 
the  drift  of  her  questions. 

"  Will  you  let  it  to  me,  please  ?  "  she  asked.  "  I 
am  looking  for  lodgings,  and  I  should  like  to  stay 
for  a  little  time  here." 

He  looked  at  her  in  amazement. 

"  My  dear  young  lady!  "  he  exclaimed.  "  You 
are  joking!  " 

"  I  am  perfectly  serious,"  she  answered.  "  I 
will  tell  you  all  about  it  if  you  like." 

"But  your  stepmother!"  he  protested.  "She 
would  never  come  to  such  a  place.  Besides,  you 
are  Mr.  De  la  Borne's  guests." 

"  I  do  not  wish  to  stay  there  any  longer,"  she 
said.  "  I  do  not  wish  to  stay  with  my  stepmother 
any  longer.  Something  has  happened  which  I  can- 
not altogether  explain  to  you,  but  which  makes 
me  feel  that  I  want  to  get  away  from  them  all. 
I  have  enough  money,  and  I  am  sure  I  should 
not  be  much  trouble.  Please  take  me,  Mr.  An* 
drew." 

He  suddenly  realized  what  a  child  she  was. 
Her  dark  eyes  were  raised  wistfully  to  his.  Her 
oval  face  was  a  little  flushed  by  her  recent  exer- 
tions. She  wore  a  very  short  skirt,  and  her  hair 
hung  about  her  shoulders  in  a  tangled  mass.    Her 


154     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

little  foreign  mannerisms,  half  inciting,  half  pro- 
vocative, were  forgotten.  His  heart  was  full  of 
pity  for  her. 

"  My  dear  child,"  he  said,  "  you  are  not  serious. 
You  cannot  possibly  be  serious.  Your  stepmother 
is  your  guardian,  and  she  certainly  would  not  allow 
you  to  run  away  from  her  like  this.  Besides,  I 
have  not  even  a  maid-servant.  It  would  be  abso- 
lutely impossible  for  you  to  stay  here." 

Her  eyes  filled  with  tears.  She  dropped  her 
arms  with  a  weary  little  gesture. 

"  But  I  should  love  it  so  much,"  she  said. 
"  Here  I  could  rest,  and  forget  all  the  things  which 
worry  me  in  this  new  life.  Here  I  could  watch 
the  sea  come  in.  I  could  sit  down  on  the  beach 
there  and  listen  to  the  larks  singing  on  the  marshes. 
Oh  !  it  would  be  such  a  rest  —  so  peaceful !  Mr. 
Andrew,  is  it  quite  impossible?" 

He  played  his  part  well  enough,  laughing  at  her 
good-humouredly. 

"  It  is  more  than  impossible,"  he  said.  '  If  you 
stayed  here  for  any  time  at  all,  your  stepmother 
would  come  and  fetch  you  back,  and  I  should  get 
into  terrible  disgrace.  Mr.  De  la  Borne  would 
probably  turn  me  out  of  my  house,"  he  added  as 
an  afterthought. 

She  sat  down  and  looked  out  of  the  window 
in  despair.    The  storm  was  still  raging.    The  skies 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES    155 

were  black,  and  the  window-pane  streaming  with 
rain-drops.    She  shivered  a  little. 

"  If  I  could  help  you  in  any  other  way,"  he 
continued,  after  a  moment's  pause,  "  I  should  be 
very  glad  to  try." 

She  turned  upon  him  quickly. 

"  How  can  you  help  me,  or  any  one,"  she  de- 
manded, "  unless  you  can  take  me  away  from  these 
people?  Listen!  Until  a  few  months  ago  I  had 
scarcely  seen  my  stepmother.  She  fetched  me 
away  from  the  convent,  took  me  to  Paris  for  some 
clothes,  and  since  then  I  have  done  nothing  but 
go  to  parties  and  houses  where  the  people  seem 
all  to  have  fine  names,  but  behave  horribly.  I 
know  that  I  am  rich.  They  told  me  that  before 
I  left  the  convent,  so  that  I  might  be  a  little  pre- 
pared, but  is  that  any  reason  why  every  man,  old 
and  young,  should  say  foolish  things  to  me,  and 
pretend  that  they  have  fallen  in  love,  when  I  know 
all  the  time  that  it  is  my  fortune  they  are  thinking 
of.  And  my  stepmother  speaks  of  marrying  me  as 
though  I  were  a  piece  of  merchandise,  to  be  dis- 
posed of  to  the  highest  bidder.  I  do  not  like  her 
friends.  I  do  not  like  the  way  they  live.  I  have 
never  liked  Major  Forrest.  Last  night  your 
lodger  and  another  man  came  to  the  Hall.  They 
asked  questions  about  Lord  Ronald.  They  asked 
questions  and  they  were  told  lies.     I  am  sure  of 


156    JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

it.  It  got  on  my  nerves.  I  thought  I  should 
shriek.  Major  Forrest  said  that  it  was  he  who 
drove  Lord  Ronald  into  Lynn,  thirty-five  miles 
away,  at  six  o'clock,  in  the  morning.  I  am  sure 
that  he  could  not  have  driven  the  car  a  hundred 
yards." 

"  Good  God!  "  Andrew  muttered. 

"  I  am  sure  of  it,"  Jeanne  continued.  "  Two 
days  before  Lord  Ronald  disappeared,  he  wanted 
the  car  to  take  us  over  to  Sandringham,  and  he 
could  not  find  the  chauffeur.  It  seems  that  he  was 
down  at  the  public-house  at  the  village,  and  he 
came  back  intoxicated.  Lord  Ronald  was  angry, 
and  he  sent  the  man  away.  The  car  was  there  in 
the  coach-house,  and  there  was  no  one  who  could 
drive  it." 

"  But,"  Andrew  protested,  "  Major  Forrest  was 
seen  returning  in  the  car." 

"  He  "was  pulled  up  the  avenue  in  it,"  Jeanne 
answered.  "  How  he  got  the  car  there  I  don't 
know,  but  I  do  not  believe  that  it  had  ever  been 
any  further." 

"  Why  do  you  not  believe  that?  "  Andrew  asked. 

She  leaned  towards  him. 

"  Because,"  she  said,  "  I  was  up  early.  The 
car  was  there  at  eight  o'clock,  alone,  just  outside 
the  gates.  There  were  the  marks  where  it  had 
come  down   from  the  house,  but  there  were  no 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     157 

marks  on  the  other  side.  I  am  sure  that  it  had 
been  no  further.  I  felt  the  engine  and  it  was  cold. 
I  do  not  believe  that  it  had  been  started  at  all." 

Andrew  was  looking  very  serious. 

"  Then,"  he  said,  "  if  Lord  Ronald  was  not 
taken  to  Lynn  that  morning,  what  do  you  suppose 
has  become  of  him?  " 

"  I  do  not  know,"  she  cried.  "  I  am  afraid.  I 
dare  not  stay  there.  They  all  look  at  one  another 
and  leave  off  talking  when  I  come  into  the  room 
unexpectedly.  They  all  seem  as  though  some 
trouble  were  hanging  over  them.  I  am  afraid  to 
be  there,  Mr.  Andrew." 

Andrew  was  very  serious  indeed  now. 

"  I  will  go  up  to  the  Hall  at  once,"  he  said, 
"  and  I  will  see  Mr.  De  la  Borne.  I  have  some 
influence  with  him,  and  I  will  get  to  the  bottom 
of  the  whole  matter.  I  will  take  you  back,  and  I 
will  make  inquiries  at  once." 

She  settled  down  in  his  easy  chair.  Her  dark 
eyes  were  full  of  pleading. 

"  But,  Mr.  Andrew,"  she  said,  "  I  do  not  want 
to  go  back  to  the  Hall.  I  am  afraid  of  them  all, 
and  I  am  afraid  of  my  stepmother  more  than  any 
of  them.  Why  may  I  not  stay  here?  I  will  be 
very  good,  and  I  will  give  you  no  trouble  at  all." 

"  My  child,"  he  said  firmly,  "  you  are  talking 
nonsense.    I  am  only  a  village  fisherman,  but  you 


158      JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

could  not  possibly  stay  in  my  house  here.     I  have 
not  even  a  housekeeper." 

"  That,"  she  declared  calmly,  "  is  an  excellent 
reason  why  I  should  stop.  I  will  be  your  house- 
keeper. Come  and  sit  here  by  me  and  let  us  talk 
about  it." 

He  walked  instead  to  the  window.  He  did  not 
choose  at  that  moment  that  she  should  see  his  face. 

"  You  do  not  wish  to  have  me !  "  she  cried. 

He  turned  round.  She  slid  out  of  her  chair  and 
came  over  to  his  side. 

"  I  can  only  tell  you,"  he  said  gravely,  "  that  it 
is  impossible  for  you  to  stay  here,  and  that  I  must 
take  you  home  at  once." 

She  took  his  arm  and  looked  up  into  his  face. 
At  once,  Mr.  Andrew?  "  she  asked  timidly. 
As  soon   as   the   storm    goes   down,"   he   an- 
swered,   glancing    uneasily    towards    the     clock. 
"  Listen,  please,  Miss  —  " 

"  Jeanne,"  she  whispered. 

"  Miss  Jeanne,  then,"  he  said.  "  There  are 
some  things  which  you  do  not  yet  understand  very 
well,  because  you  have  been  brought  up  differently 
to  most  English  girls.  I  have  some  influence  with 
Mr.  De  la  Borne,  and  I  shall  do  what  I  can  for 
you  up  at  the  house.  But  it  is  very  certain  that 
you  must  not  think  of  leaving  your  stepmother 
unless  you  have  some  other  relative  who  is  willing 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     159 

to  take  you.  A  child  of  your  age  cannot  live  alone. 
It  is  unheard  of." 

She  sighed,  and  turned  away. 

"  Very  well,  Mr.  Andrew,"  she  said.  "  If  you 
do  not  wish  to  be  troubled  with  me  I  will  go  back. 
I  am  ready  when  you  are." 

Andrew  looked  once  more  out  of  the  win- 
dow. 

"  We  cannot  cross  just  yet,"  he  said.  "  The 
tide  is  coming  in  very  fast,  and  even  here  there  is 
a  big  sea." 

"  It  is  magnificent,"  she  answered,  stealing  back 
to  his  side.    "  I  only  wish  that  we  were  outside." 

"  You  could  not  stand  up,"  he  answered. 
"Listen!" 

The  thunder  of  the  incoming  waves  seemed  to 
fill  the  room.  Even  while  they  stood  there  a  little 
shower  of  pebbles  and  spray  were  dashed  against 
the  windows.  Andrew  looked  anxiously  across  the 
estuary  and  tapped  the  barometer  by  his  side. 

"  I  am  afraid,"  he  said,  "  that  you  are  going  to 
be  late  for  dinner  to-night.  You  are  a  bona  fide 
prisoner  here  for  an  hour  or  more  at  least." 

"  I  am  so  glad,"  she  answered. 

There  was  a  knock'  at  the  door.  A  man  entered 
with  a  tea-tray.  He  was  in  plain  clothes  and  was 
obviously  a  servant.  Jeanne  looked  at  him  in  sur- 
prise. 


160      JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

"  Has  Mr.  Berners  left  his  servant  here?"  she 
asked. 

"  For  a  day  or  two,"  Andrew  answered  hastily. 
"  He  may  come  back,  you  see,  and  he  went  away 
in  a  great  hurry.  Martin,  bring  another  teacup, 
and  make  the  tea,  please." 

The  man  set  down  the  tray  and  bowed. 

"  Very  good,  sir,"  he  answered. 

Jeanne  watched  him  disappear,  perplexed.  Was 
it  because  he  was  so  perfectly  trained  a  servant 
that  he  addressed  the  man  at  her  side  with  the  same 
respect  that  he  would  have  shown  to  his  own  mas- 
ter? 

"I  may  stay  for  tea,  may  I?"  she  asked. 
"  That  is  something,  at  any  rate.  I  am  going  to 
look  round  at  your  things.  You  don't  mind,  do 
you?" 

"  Certainly  not,"  he  answered.  "  That  big  fish 
on  the  wall  was  caught  within  fifty  yards  of  this 
island.  Those  sea-birds,  too,  were  all  shot  from 
here." 

"What  strange  little  creatures!"  she  mur- 
.mured.  "  You  seem  to  find  quite  a  lot  of  time  to 
read  and  do  other  things  beside  fish,  Mr.  Andrew," 
she  remarked,  as  she  looked  over  his  bookcases. 
"  You  puzzle  me  very  much  sometimes.  I  had  no 
idea,"  she  added,  looking  at  him  hesitatingly, 
"  that  people  who  have  to  work,  as  you  have  to, 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     161 

for  a  living,  understood  and  read  books  like 
this." 

"  Ah,  well,"  he  answered,  "  I  had  perhaps  a 
little  more  education  than  some  of  them." 

The  servant  returned  with  some  more  things 
upon  a  tray.  Jeanne  sat  down  with  a  little  laugh 
in  front  of  the  teapot.  She  was  very  much  afraid 
of  saying  more  than  was  polite,  and  she  felt  that 
she  was  amongst  utterly  strange  surroundings. 
Yet  it  seemed  to  her  a  most  extraordinary  thing 
that  a  fisherman  in  a  country  village  should  pos- 
sess a  silver  teapot  and  old  Worcester  china,  and 
should  be  waited  upon  by  a  man  servant  even 
though  he  were  the  man  servant  of  a  lodger. 


CHAPTER    XVIII 

The  storm  died  away  with  the  coming  of  eve- 
ning, but  a  great  sea  still  broke  upon  the  island 
beach  and  floated  up  the  estuary.  Andrew  stood 
outside  his  door  and  looked  across  toward  the 
mainland  with  a  perplexed  frown.  It  was  barely 
a  hundred  yards  crossing,  but  it  was  certain  that 
no  boat  could  live  for  half  the  distance.  Jeanne, 
who  had  recovered  her  spirits,  stood  by  his  side, 
and  smiled  as  she  saw  the  white  crested  waves  come 
rolling  up. 

"  It  is  beautiful,  this,"  she  declared.  "  Do  you 
not  love  to  feel  the  spray  on  your  cheeks,  Mr. 
Andrew?    And  how  salt  it  smells,  and  fresh!  " 

"  That   is    all   very   well,"    Andrew   answered, 
'  but  I  am  wondering  how  we  are  going  to  get 
over  to  the  other  side  there." 

'  I  do  not  think,"  she  answered,  "  that  it  will 
be  possible  for  a  long,  long  time.  You  will  have 
to  take  me  as  a  lodger  whether  you  want  to  or  not. 
I  would  not  trust  myself  in  a  boat  even  with  you, 
upon  a  sea  like  that." 

It  will  be  high  tide  in  half  an  hour,"  Andrew 


<( 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     163 

said,  "  and  the  sea  will  go  down  fast  enough  then." 

"  It  may  not,"  she  answered  hopefully.  "  I 
rather  believe  that  there  is  another  storm  blowing 
up." 

'  There  will  be  no  dinner  for  you,"  he  warned 
her. 

"  That  I  can  endure  cheerfully,"  she  declared. 

'  I  am  sick  of  dinners.    I  hate  them.    They  come 

much  too  soon,  and  one  has  always  the  same  things 

to  eat.     I  am  quite  sure  that  I  shall  dine  quite 

nicely  with  you,  Mr.  Andrew." 

He  glanced  at  his  watch  and  looked  out  seaward. 
It  was  even  as  she  had  said.  There  were  indica- 
tions of  another  storm.  Even  while  they  stood 
there  the  large  raindrops  fell. 

"  We  had  better  go  in,"  Andrew  said.  "  It  is 
going  to  rain  again." 

She  clapped  her  hands,  and  danced  lightly  back 
into  the  house.  She  subsided  into  his  easy  chair 
and  clasped  her  hands  over  her  head. 

"  Come  and  stand  there  on  the  hearthrug,"  she 
demanded,  "  and  tell  me  stories  —  stories  of  fish- 
ing adventures  and  storms,  and  things  that  have 
happened  to  yourself.  Never  mind  how  ordinary 
they  may  seem.  I  want  to  hear  them.  Remember 
that  everything  is  new  to  me.  Everything  is  in- 
teresting." 

He   accepted   the   inevitable   at  last,   and   they 


164     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

talked  until  the  twilight  filled  the  room.  It  was 
strange  how  much  and  yet  how  little  she  knew. 
The  fascination  of  her  worldly  ignorance  was  a 
thing  which  grew  continually  upon  him.  Suddenly 
she  burst  into  a  little  peal  of  laughter. 

"  I  was  wondering,"  she  remarked,  "  whether 
they  are  waiting  dinner  for  me.  I  can  just  imagine 
how  frightened  they  all  are." 

"  I  had  forgotten  all  about  them,"  Andrew 
confessed.     "  Wait  a  moment." 

He  left  the  room  and  walked  out  on  to  the 
beach.  The  sea  was  still  dashing  its  spray  high 
*>ver  the  roof  of  the  little  cottage.  The  stones  out- 
side were  wet  to  within  a  few  feet  of  his  door.  He 
looked  across  toward  the  mainland.  Far  away  he 
fancied  that  he  could  see  men  carrying  lanterns  like 
will-o'-the-wTisps,  in  that  part  of  the  marshes  near 
the  Hall.  He  retraced  his  steps  to  the  sitting- 
room. 

"  I  am  afraid,"  he  said,  "  that  it  will  not  be 
possible  to  take  you  back  to-night.  The  sea  is  still 
too  rough  for  my  boat,  and  shows  no  sign  of  going 
down." 

She  clapped  her  hands. 

"  I  am  very  glad,"  she  declared  frankly.  "  I 
would  very  much  rather  stay  here  than  go  back. 
Shall  we  go  and  see  what  there  is  for  dinner?  I 
can  cook  quite  well.     I  learnt  at  the  convent,  but 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     165 

I  have  never  had  a  chance  to  really  try  what  I  can 
do." 

He  smiled. 

"  Well,"  he  said,  "  you  can  do  exactly  what  you 
like  with  the  contents  of  my  larder,  but  so  far  as 
I  am  concerned,  I  must  go." 

"  Go?  "  she  repeated  wonderingly.  "  If  I  can- 
not leave  the  island,  surely  you  cannot!  " 

"  Yes !  "  he  answered.  "  There  is  another  way. 
I  am  going  to  swim  over  to  the  mainland  and  let 
them  know  at  the  Hall  where  you  are." 

She  was  suddenly  serious,  serious  as  well  as  dis- 
appointed. 

"  You  must  not,"  she  declared.  "  It  is  too  dan- 
gerous. I  will  not  have  you  try  it.  You  must  stay 
here  with  me.  I  am  not  used  to  being  left  alone. 
I  should  be  very  lonely  indeed.  You  must  please 
not  think  of  going." 

"  Miss  Jeanne,"  he  said  quietly,  "  there  are 
many  things  which  you  do  not  know,  and  you  must 
let  me  tell  you  this,  that  it  is  not  possible  for  me 
to  keep  you  here  as  my  guest  until  to-morrow. 
You  cannot  leave  the  island,  so  I  am  going  to. 
I  can  assure  you  that  it  is  nothing  whatever  of  a 
swim,  and  I  shall  get  to  the  other  side  quite  easily. 
Then  I  am  going  down  to  the  village  to  get  some 
dry  clothes,  and  I  shall  go  up  to  the  Hall  and  talk 
to  your  stepmother." 


166     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

"  If  you  make  me  go  back,"  she  declared,  "  I 
shall  run  away  the  first  time  I  have  an  opportunity, 
and  if  you  will  not  have  me,  I  dare  say  I  can  find 
some  one  else  who  has  a  room  to  let,  who  will." 

"  I  am  not  your  keeper,"  he  answered,  "  but 
please  don't  do  anything  rash  until  I  tell  you  what 
your  stepmother  says." 

"  It  is  you  who  are  rash,"  she  declared.  "  I 
do  not  think  that  I  can  let  you  go.  I  am  afraid, 
and  the  water  looks  so  cruel  to-night." 

He  laughed  as  he  stepped  outside. 

"  I  am  going  round  to  leave  some  orders  with 
Mr.  Berners'  servant,"  he  said,  "  and  after  that  I 
am  going.  You  must  ring  for  anything  you  want, 
and  the  man  will  show  you  your  room  if  you  want 
to  lie  down.  I  dare  say,  though,  that  some  one 
will  come  from  the  Hall  presently.  The  sea  will 
be  calmer  in  a  few  hours'  time." 

She  walked  with  him  to  the  edge  of  the  beach. 
When  he  drew  off  his  coat  and  turned  up  his 
sleeves  she  trembled  with  anxiety. 

"  Oh,  I  am  afraid,"  she  muttered.  "  I  don't 
like  your  going  in.  I  don't  like  your  doing  this. 
I  am  sorry  that  I  ever  came." 

He  laughed  a  little  scornfully,  and  plunged  in. 
She  watched  his  head  appear  and  disappear,  her 
heart  beating  fast  all  the  time.  Once  she  lost  sight 
of  it  altogether  and  screamed.     Almost  immedi- 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     167 

ately  he  came  up  to  the  surface  again,  and  turning 
round  waved  his  hand  to  her. 

"  I  am  all  right,"  he  sang  out.  "  Going  strong. 
It's  quite  easy." 

A  few  minutes  later  she  saw  him  wading,  and 
directly  afterwards  he  stood  upon  the  sands  oppo- 
site to  her.  He  waved  his  hand.  She  put  her 
fingers  to  her  lips  and  threw  him  a  kiss.  He  pre- 
tended not  to  notice,  and  started  off  toward  the 
village,  and  her  low  laugh  came  floating  to  him  in 
a  momentary  lull  of  the  wind. 

Half-way  across  the  marshes  he  changed  his 
course,  clambered  up  a  high  bank  on  to  the  road, 
and  turned  toward  the  Hall.  Barer  than  ever  the 
great  gaunt  building  seemed  to  stand  out  against 
the  sky  line,  but  from  every  window  lights  were 
flashing,  and  the  windows  of  the  dining-room 
seemed  to  reflect  a  perfect  blaze  of  light.  Andrew 
made  his  way  to  the  back  entrance,  and  entering 
unobserved,  made  his  way  up  to  his  own  room. 


Dinner  was  over,  and  the  little  party  of  three 
were  settling  down  to  their  coffee  and  cigarettes 
when  the  Princess'  maid  came  down  and  whispered 
in  her  mistress'  ear.  The  Princess  turned  to  her 
host  perplexed. 

"Has  any  one  seen  anything  of  Jeanne?"  she 


168     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

inquired.  "  Reynolds  has  just  told  me  that  she 
has  not  returned  at  all." 

"  I  thought  you  said  that  she  was  lying  down 
with  a  headache,"  Cecil  interposed  eagerly. 

"  I  thought  so  myself,"  the  Princess  answered. 
"  Early  this  afternoon  she  told  me  that  she  had 
no  sleep  last  night,  that  she  had  a  very  bad  head- 
ache, and  that  she  was  going  to  bed.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  she  went  out  almost  at  once,  and  has  not 
returned."  Cecil  was  already  on  his  way  to  the 
door. 

"  We  will  send  out  into  the  village  at  once," 
he  said,  "  and  some  one  must  go  on  the  marshes. 
There  are  plenty  of  places  there  where  it  would 
have  been  absolutely  unsafe  for  her  in  such  a  storm 
as  we  have  had.  Ring  the  bell,  Forrest,  will 
you?" 

Andrew  stepped  in  and  closed  the  door  behind 
him. 

11  It  is  not  necessary,"  he  said.  "  I  can  tell  you 
all  about  Miss  Le  Mesurier." 


IT  IS  NOT  NECESSARY,      HE   SAID.  I   CAN     TELL  YOU  ALL  ABOUT 

Miss    ii     MESURIER." 

[Page  16$ 


CHAPTER   XIX 

There  was  a  moment's  breathless  silence  as 
Andrew  stood  there  looking  in  upon  the  little 
group.  Then  he  left  his  position  at  the  door  and 
came  up  to  the  table  round  which  they  were  seated. 

"  Madam,"  he  said  to  the  Princess,  "  your 
daughter  is  safe.  She  came  down  to  the  island  this 
afternoon,  and  was  unable  to  return  owing  to  the 
storm." 

The  Princess  gave  a  little  sigh  of  relief. 

"  Foolish  child !  "  she  said.  "  But  where  is  she 
now,  Mr.  Andrew?  " 

"  She  is  still  at  the  island,"  Andrew  answered. 
"  It  was  impossible  for  her  to  leave,  so  I  came 
here  to  tell  you  of  her  whereabouts." 

"  It  was  extremely  thoughtful  of  you,"  the 
Princess  said  graciously. 

"  If  Miss  Le  Mesurier  was  unable  to  leave  the 
island,  how  was  it  that  you  came?  "  Major  Forrest 
asked,  looking  at  Andrew  through  his  eyeglass  as 
though  he  were  some  sort  of  natural  curiosity. 

"  I  swam  over,"  Andrew  answered.  "  It  was  a 
very  short  distance." 


170     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

It  was  about  this  time  that  they  all  noticed  the 
fact  that  Andrew  was  wearing  clothes  of  an  alto- 
gether different  fashion  to  the  fisherman's  garb 
in  which  they  had  seen  him  previously.  The  Prin- 
cess looked  at  him  perplexed.  Cecil  felt  instinct- 
ively that  the  event  which  he  had  most  dreaded 
was  about  to  happen. 

"  And  you  came  up  here  purposely  to  relieve 
our  minds,  Mr.  Andrew,"  the  Princess  said. 
"  Really  it  is  most  kind  of  you.  I  wish  that  there 
were  some  way  —  " 

She  hesitated,  a  slight  note  of  question  in  her 
tone,  expressed  also  by  her  upraised  eyebrows. 

"  I  had  a  further  reason  for  coming,"  Andrew 
said  slowly.  "  I  am  very  sorry  indeed  to  seem 
inhospitable  or  discourteous,  but  there  is  a  certain 
matter  which  must  be  cleared  up,  and  at  once.  I 
refer  to  the  disappearance  of  Lord  Ronald." 

There  was  an  instant's  dead  silence.  Then  For- 
rest, with  white  face,  leaned  across  the  table. 

"  Who  the  devil  are  you?  "  he  asked. 

"  I  am  Andrew  de  la  Borne,"  Andrew  answered, 
"  the  owner  of  these  poor  estates,  which  I  am  very 
well  content  to  leave  for  the  greater  part  of  the 
time  in  my  brother's  care,  only  that  he  is  young, 
and  is  liable  to  make  mistakes.  He  has  made  one, 
sir,  I  fear,  in  offering  you  the  hospitality  of  the 
Red  Hall." 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     171 

Forrest  rose  slowly  to  his  feet.  The  Princess 
held  out  her  hand  as  though  to  beg  him  not  to 
speak.    She  turned  towards  Andrew. 

"  I  do  not  understand,  sir,"  she  said,  "  why  you 
have  chosen  to  masquerade  under  another  name, 
and  why  you  come  now  to  insult  your  brother's 
guests  in  such  a  manner.  Is  what  he  says  true, 
Cecil?"  she  added,  turning  towards  him.  "Is 
this  man  your  brother?  " 

"  Yes !  "  Cecil  answered  sullenly.  "  He  tells  the 
truth.  It  is  just  like  him  to  make  such  a  thunder- 
ing idiot  of  himself." 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,"  Andrew  answered.  "  It 
is  not  I,  Cecil,  who  desire  to  come  here  and  say 
these  things  to  any  guest  of  yours.  It  is  you  who 
are  sheltering  under  this  roof  one  man  at  least  to 
whom  you  should  never  have  offered  your  hospi- 
tality. The  Duke  of  Westerham,  who  has  been 
my  guest  for  the  last  few  days,  told  me  all  that 
one  needs  to  know  about  you,  sir,  and  your  career." 

Forrest  asked  no  more  questions.  He  turned 
to  Cecil. 

"  Mr.  De  la  Borne,"  he  said,  "  I  have  under- 
stood that  you  were  my  host,  and  I  appeal  to  you. 
Is  this  person  indeed  your  elder  brother?  " 

"  Yes!  "  Cecil  answered. 

"  You  know  what  this  means,"  Forrest  contin- 
ued, speaking  to  Cecil.     "  I  cannot  remain  in  this 


172     JEANNE    OF    THE    MARSHES 

house  any  longer.  I  could  only  accept  hospitality 
from  those  who  have  at  least  learned  to  comport 
themselves  as  gentlemen." 

Andrew  smiled. 

"  I  will  not  grudge  you,  sir,"  he  said,  "  any 
reasonable  excuse  for  leaving  this  house  as  quickly 
as  may  be,  but  before  you  go,  I  insist  upon  know- 
ing what  has  become  of  Lord  Ronald." 

Cecil  turned  towards  his  brother  angrily. 

"  I  am  sick  of  hearing  about  Engleton !  "  he  de- 
clared. "  I  tell  you  that  he  left  here,  Andrew,  on 
Wednesday  morning,  and  caught  the  9-5  train  to 
London,  or  at  any  rate  to  Peterboro'.  Whether 
he  went  north,  south,  east,  or  west,  is  no  concern 
of  ours.  We  only  know  that  he  promised  to  come 
back  and  has  not  come." 

"  There  is  more  to  be  learnt  then,"  Andrew 
answered.  "  How  did  he  get  to  Lynn  Station  that 
morning?  " 

"  In  the  motor  car,"  Cecil  answered. 

"  Who  drove  it?  "  Andrew  asked. 

"  Major  Forrest,"  Cecil  answered. 

"  It  is  a  lie !  "  Andrew  declared.  "  The  car 
never  went  a  hundred  yards  beyond  the  gates.  I 
know  that  for  a  fact." 

Again  there  was  silence.  The  Princess  inter- 
vened. 

"  Mr.  Andrew,"  she  began  —  "I  beg  your  par- 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     173 

don,  Mr.  De  la  Borne  —  supposing  Lord  Ronald 
did  wish  to  keep  his  departure  and  the  manner  of 
it  a  great  secret,  why  should  it  trouble  you?  You 
don't  suppose,  I  presume,  that  there  has  been  a 
fight,  or  anything  of  that  sort?  " 

"  I  only  know,"  Andrew  answered,  "  that  the 
brother  of  one  of  my  dearest  friends  has  disap- 
peared from  this  house,  after  spending  several 
days  in  the  company  of  a  man  of  bad  reputation. 
That  is  quite  enough  for  me.  I  am  determined 
to  get  to  the  bottom  of  the  matter." 

"  It  is  a  very  little  matter,  after  all,"  the  Prin- 
cess said  calmly.    "  Perhaps  —  " 

She  hesitated,  and  looked  at  the  two  other 
men. 

"  Perhaps,"  she  continued  slowly,  "  it  would 
be  as  well  to  tell  you  the  truth." 

"  If  you  do  not,  madam,"  Andrew  answered, 
"  it  is  more  than  probable  that  I  shall  speedily 
elicit  it." 

Both  Forrest  and  Cecil  seemed  stricken  speech- 
less, and  before  they  could  recover  themselves  the 
Princess  had  commenced  her  story,  talking  with 
easy  and  convincing  fluency. 

"  Lord  Ronald,"  she  said,  "  did  leave  here  at 
the  time  you  and  the  Duke  have  been  told,  and 
Major  Forrest  did  try  to  drive  him  in  the  motor 
to  Lynn  Station.     When  he  found  that  that  was 


174     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

impossible,  that  they  could  not  get  the  engine  to 
go,  Lord  Ronald  left  his  luggage  here  and  walked 
to  Wells.  That  is  the  last  we  have  heard  of  him. 
He  asked  that  his  luggage  should  be  sent  to  his 
rooms  in  London,  and  we  sent  it  off  the  next  day. 
He  left  here  on  good  terms  with  everybody,  but  he 
told  us  distinctly  that  the  business  on  which  he  was 
summoned  away  was  of  a  very  unpleasant  nature. 
I  think  that  some  one  was  trying  to  blackmail  him. 
Now  you  can  make  what  inquiries  you  like,  but  I 
am  very  certain  of  one  thing,  that  anything  you 
may  discover  is  more  likely  to  bring  discredit  upon 
Lord  Ronald  himself  than  anybody  else." 

"  Madam,"  Andrew  said,  "  your  story,  of 
course,  I  am  bound  to  accept  as  the  truth,  but  I 
must  tell  you  frankly  that  I  shall  pass  it  on  to  the 
Duke,  who  will  take  up  his  inquiries  from  the 
point  you  name.  If  he  finds  that  the  facts  do  not 
correspond  with  what  you  have  told  me,  I  fear 
that  the  consequences  will  be  disagreeable  for  all 
of  you." 

"  Of  what  on  earth  do  you  suspect  us?  "  Major 
Forrest  asked  sharply.  "  Do  you  think  that  we 
have  made  away  with  Engleton?  Why  should 
we?  We  may  be  the  adventurers  you  delicately 
suggest,  but  at  least  we  should  have  an  object  in 
our  crimes.  Engleton  had  not  a  ten-pound  note  of 
ready  money  with  him.     I  know  that  for  a  fact, 


JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES     175 

because  I  lent  him  some  money  to  pay  his  chauf- 
feur's wages  when  he  sent  him  away." 

"  You  are  perhaps  holding  some  of  his  IOU's?  ' 
Andrew  asked. 

"  I  certainly  am,"  Forrest  answered,  "  and  the 
sooner  I  hear  from  him  the  better.  If  you  are 
really  the  owner  of  this  house,  I  shall  leave  to- 
morrow morning." 

Andrew  bowed  coldly. 

"  That,"  he  said,  "  would  certainly  seem  to  be 
your  best  course.  On  the  contrary,"  he  added,  "  I 
am  not  altogether  sure  that  I  am  justified  in  let- 
ting you  go." 

The  Princess  frowned  at  him  indignantly. 

"  You  talk  nonsense,  my  dear  Mr.  Andrew,  or 
Mr.  Andrew  de  la  Borne,"  she  said.  "  If  you 
tried  to  retain  Major  Forrest  on  such  a  cock  and 
bull  pretext,  you  would  be  probably  very  soon 
sorry  for  it.  Besides  you  have  no  power  to  do 
anything  of  the  sort." 

"  Madam,"  Andrew  answered,  "  I  am  a  magis- 
trate, and  I  could  sign  a  warrant  on  the  spot.  I 
do  not,  however,  feel  justified  in  going  to  such 
lengths.  I  feel  sure  that  if  Major  Forrest  is 
wanted,  we  shall  be  able  to  find  him." 

"  Of  course  you  will,"  the  Princess  intervened 
calmly.  "  Men  like  Major  Forrest  do  not  run 
away  just  because  some  one  chooses  to  make  a 


176     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

ridiculous  charge  against  them.  If  only  I  could 
get  Jeanne,  I  would  leave  myself  to-night." 

"  My  dear  Princess,"  Cecil  said,  "  I  hope  that 
you  do  not  mean  it.  My  brother  has  said  more 
than  he  means,  I  am  sure." 

"  I  have  said  less,"  Andrew  replied.  "  I  have 
the  very  best  reasons  for  believing  that  Major 
Forrest  has  lied  his  way  into  whatever  friendship 
he  may  have  had  with  Lord  Ronald  and  my 
brother." 

Forrest  moved  toward  the  door. 

"  Mr.  De  la  Borne,"  he  said  to  Cecil,  "  you  will 
forgive  me  if  I  decline  to  remain  here  to  be  in- 
sulted by  your  brother." 

The  Princess  followed  him  from  the  room. 
Cecil  and  Andrew  were  alone. 

"  D — n  you,  Andrew !  "  the  former  said,  turn- 
ing upon  him,  whitefaced,  and  with  a  sort  of 
petulant  anger.  "  Why  do  you  come  here  and 
spoil  things  like  this?  " 

Andrew  stood  upon  the  hearthrug,  and  looked 
at  his  brother,  black  and  forbidding. 

"  Cecil,"  he  said,  "  my  life  has  been  spoilt  by 
paying  for  your  excesses.  Ever  since  I  came  of 
age  I  have  been  hampered  all  the  time  by  paying 
your  debts  and  providing  you  with  money.  I  even 
let  you  pose  here  as  the  master  of  the  Red  Hall 
because  it  pleased  you.     I  have  had  enough  of  it. 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     177 

If  you  run  up  any  more  debts,  you  must  pay  them 
yourself.    I  am  master  here  and  I  intend  to  remain 


so." 


Cecil  was  suddenly  pale. 

"  Do  you  mean,"  he  asked,  "  that  you  intend 
to  remain  here  now?" 

Andrew  hesitated. 

"  Your  guests  are  leaving,"  he  said.  "  Why 
not?" 

"  But  they  may  not  go  until  to-morrow  or  the 
next    day,"    Cecil    said.      "  I    cannot    turn    them 


out." 


Andrew  stood  for  a  moment  looking  thought- 
fully at  the  door. 

"  They  cannot  stay  more  than  a  day,"  he  said, 
"  if  Major  Forrest  is  really  their  friend.  In  any 
case,  I  shall  not  return  until  they  are  gone." 

Cecil's  face  cleared  a  little,  but  he  was  still  per- 
plexed. 

"  They  had  just  promised,"  he  said,  "  to  stay 
another  week." 

"If  you  wish  to  entertain  the  Princess  and  Miss 
Le  Mesurier,"  Andrew  said,  "  and  they  are  willing 
to  stop  after  what  has  passed,  I  have  nothing,  of 
course,  to  say  against  it.  But  the  man  Forrest  I 
will  not  have  here.  If  ever  cheat  and  coward  were 
written  in  a  man's  face,  your  friend  carries  the 
marks  in  his." 


178     JEANNE    OF    THE    MARSHES 

"  He  has  won  nothing  to  speak  of  from  me 
here,"  Cecil  declared. 

"  You  are  probably  too  small  game,"  Andrew 
answered.  "  How  about  Engleton?  Did  he 
lose?" 

"  I  am  not  sure,"  Cecil  answered.  "  Not  very 
much,  if  anything." 

The  Princess  came  rustling  back.  She  held  her 
little  spaniel  up  to  her  cheek,  and  she  affected  not 
to  notice  the  somewhat  strained  attitude  of  the 
two  men.     She  went  at  once  to  Andrew. 

"  Mr.  De  la  Borne,"  she  said,  "  I  think  that  you 
have  been  very  unjust  and  very  rude  to  Major 
Forrest,  who  is  an  old  friend  of  mine.  I  am  sure 
that  you  have  been  misled,  and  I  am  sure  that 
some  day  you  will  ask  his  pardon." 

Andrew  bowed  slightly,  and  looked  her  straight 
in  the  face. 

"  Princess,"  he  said,  "  may  I  ask  how  long  you 
have  known  the  gentleman  who  has  just  left  us?  " 

"  For  a  very  great  many  years,"  she  answered. 
"Why?" 

"  Are  you  sure  of  your  own  knowledge,"  An- 
drew asked,  "  that  he  is  really  a  person  of  good 
repute  and  against  whom  there  have  been  no  scan- 
dalous reports?  " 

"  I  do  not  listen  to  gossip,"  the  Princess  an- 
swered.   "  Major  Forrest  goes  everywhere  in  Lon- 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     179 

don,  and  I  have  seen  nothing  in  his  deportment  at 
any  time  to  induce  me  to  withdraw  my  friendship.'* 

"  I  fancy,  then,"  Andrew  said,  "  that  some  day 
you  will  find  you  have  been  a  little  deceived." 

"What  about  Lord  Ronald?"  the  Princess 
asked.  "  Perhaps,  Mr.  De  la  Borne,  you  think 
that  we  are  all  a  little  company  of  adventurers. 
This  is  such  a  likely  spot  for  our  operations,  isn't 
it?" 

11  Lord  Ronald,"  Andrew  said,  "  is  the  brother 
of  my  old  friend,  and  he  is,  of  course,  above  sus- 
picion, but  Lord  Ronald  appears  to  have  left  you 
somewhat  abruptly,  I  might  almost  say  mysteri- 
ously." 

"  He  was  here  for  some  time,"  the  Princess 
said,  "  and  he  is  coming  back." 

"  In  the  meantime,"  Andrew  continued,  '  he 
appears  to  have  vanished  from  the  face  of  the 
earth." 

The  Princess  turned  away  carelessly. 

"  That,"  she  said,  "  is  scarcely  our  affair.  I 
have  not  the  slightest  doubt  but  that  he  will  turn 
up  again." 

"  If  it  should  turn  out  that  I  am  mistaken," 
Andrew  said  stiffly,  "  I  should  be  glad  to  ask  your 
pardons,  but  from  my  present  information  I  can 
only  say  I  do  not  care  to  extend  the  hospitality 
of  my  house  to  Major  Forrest,  nor  do  I  consider 


180    JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

him  a  fit  associate,  madam,  for  you  and  your  step- 
daughter." 

"  May  I  ask,"  the  Princess  inquired,  "  who 
Major  Forrest's  traducers  have  been?" 

"  My  information,"  Andrew  answered,  "  comes 
from  the  Duke  of  Westerham.  I  have  every  rea- 
son to  believe  that  the  case  against  him  has  been 
understated." 

"  The  Duke,"  Cecil  declared,  "  is  a  pig-headed 
old  fool !  " 

Andrew  shrugged  his  shoulders. 

"  I  have  always  found  him  a  man  of  remarkably 
keen  judgment,"  he  said. 

"What  are  you  going  to  do  about  Jeanne?" 
the  Princess  asked,  changing  the  subject  abruptly. 

"  I  should  suggest,"  Andrew  answered,  "  that 
you  have  a  maid  pack  a  bag  and  prepare  to  go 
with  me  over  to  the  island  early  in  the  morning. 
There  is  no  chance  to  cross  before  then,  as  the 
tide  would  be  high." 

"  But  how  nervous  she  will  be  there  all  alone!  " 
the  Princess  exclaimed. 

"  My  servant  is  there,"  Andrew  answered,  "  and 
also  an  old  woman  who  cooks  for  me.  They  will, 
I  am  sure,  do  everything  they  can  to  make  her 
comfortable.  I  shall  go  myself  and  bring  her  back 
here  as  soon  as  it  is  daylight." 

"  We  are  giving  you  a  great  deal  of  trouble,  I 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     181 

am  afraid,  Mr.  De  la  Borne,"  the  Princess  said 
stiffly.  "  To-morrow,  as  soon  as  my  maid  can 
pack,  we  will  return  to  London." 

Andrew  bowed  as  he  turned  to  leave  the  room. 

"  I  trust,"  he  said,  "  that  you  will  not  let  my 
presence  interfere  with  your  plans.  I  shall  remain 
on  the  island  myself  to-morrow,  after  I  have 
brought  your  daughter  back." 


CHAPTER   XX 

Jeanne  awoke  the  next  morning  to  find  herself 
between  lavender  scented  sheets  in  a  small  iron 
bedstead,  with  a  soft  sea-wind  blowing  in  through 
the  half-open  window.  Her  maid  was  ready  to 
wait  upon  her,  and  her  bath  was  of  salt  water 
fresh  from  the  sea.  She  descended  to  find  Andrew 
at  work  in  the  garden,  the  sun  already  high  in  the 
heavens,  and  the  sea  as  blue  and  placid  as  though 
the  storm  of  the  night  before  were  a  thing  long 
past  and  forgotten. 

"  I  am  never  going  away,"  she  declared,  as  they 
sat  at  breakfast.  "  I  take  your  rooms,  Monsieur 
Andrew.  I  will  import  as  many  chaperons  as  you 
please,  but  I  will  not  leave  this  island." 

"  I  am  afraid,"  he  answered  smiling,  "  that 
there  are  other  people  who  would  have  something 
to  say  about  that.  Your  stepmother  is  already 
anxious.  I  have  promised  that  you  shall  be  back 
at  the  Hall  by  ten  o'clock." 

The  gaiety  suddenly  faded  from  her  face.  Her 
lips,  which  had  been  curved  in  laughter,  quivered. 

"  You  mean  that?  "  she  faltered. 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     183 

"  Most  assuredly,"  he  answered.  "  I  have  no 
place  for  lodgers  here.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  if  you 
knew  the  truth,  you  would  admit  that  your  staying 
here  is  quite  impossible." 

"  Well,"  she  said,  "  I  should  like  to  know  the 
truth.    Suppose  you  tell  it  me." 

"  I  must  confess,  then,"  Andrew  answered, 
"  that  I  am  somewhat  of  a  fraud.  Berners  was 
my  friend,  not  my  lodger,  and  I  am  Andrew  de  la 
Borne,  Cecil's  elder  brother." 

She  looked  at  him  for  several  moments  stead- 
ily. 

"  I  think  that  you  might  have  told  me,"  was  all 
she  said. 

He  shrugged  his  shoulders. 

"Why?  "  he  asked,  a  little  brusquely.  "  I  am 
not  of  your  world,  or  your  stepmother's.  When 
Cecil  told  me  that  he  had  invited  some  of  his 
fashionable  friends  down  here  to  stay,  I  begged 
him  to  leave  me  out  of  it.  I  chose  to  retire  here, 
and  I  preferred  not  to  see  any  of  you.  Mine  are 
country  ways,  Miss  Le  Mesurier.  I  am  at  heart 
what  I  pretended  to  be,  fisherman,  countryman, 
yokel,  call  me  what  you  will.  The  other  side  of 
life,  Cecil's  side,  doesn't  appeal  to  me  a  bit.  I  felt 
that  it  would  be  more  comfortable  for  you  people 
and  for  me,  if  I  kept  out  of  the  way." 

"  You    class    me    with    them,"    she    remarked 


184     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

quietly,  "  a  little  ruthlessly.     I  think  you   forget 
that  as  yet  I  have  not  chosen  my  way  in  life." 

'  That  is  true,"  he  answered,  '  but  how  can 
you  help  but  choose  what  every  one  of  those  who 
call  themselves  your  friends  regards  as  inevitable. 
You  must  dance  in  many  ballrooms,  and  make 
your  bow  before  the  great  ones  of  the  earth.  It 
is  a  part  of  the  penalty  that  you  must  pay  for  your 
name  and  riches.  All  that  I  can  wish  you  is  that 
you  lose  as  little  of  yourself  as  possible  in  the  days 
that  lie  before  you." 

"  I  thank  you,"  she  answered  quietly.  "  You 
will  let  me  know  when  you  are  ready  to  take  me 
back." 

'  Have  I  offended  you?  "  he  asked,  as  they  rose 
from  the  table.  "  I  am  clumsy,  I  know,  and  the 
words  do  not  come  readily  to  my  mouth.  But 
after  all,  you  must  understand." 

"  Yes,"  she  said  sadly,  "  I  do  understand." 

They  went  down  to  the  beach  and  he  helped  her 
into  the  boat.  Her  maid  sat  by  her  side,  and  he 
rowed  them  across  with  a  few  powerful  strokes. 

"  Storm  and  sunshine,"  he  remarked,  "  follow 
one  another  here  as  swiftly  as  in  any  corner  of  the 
world.  Yesterday  we  had  wind  and  thunder  and 
rain.  To-day,  look!  The  sky  is  cloudless,  the 
birds  are  singing  everywhere  upon  the  marshes, 
the  waves  can  do  no  more  than  ripple  in  upon  the 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     185 

sands.  Will  you  walk  across  the  marshes,  Miss 
Jeanne,  or  will  you  come  to  the  village  and  wait 
while  I  send  for  a  carriage?  " 

"  We  will  walk,"  she  answered.  "  It  may  be 
for  the  last  time." 

The  maid  fell  behind.  Andrew  and  his  com- 
panion, who  seemed  smaller  and  slimmer  than  ever 
by  his  side,  started  on  their  tortuous  way,  here  and 
there  turning  to  the  right  and  to  the  left  to  follow 
the  course  of  some  tidal  stream,  or  avoid  the 
swampy  places.  The  faint  odour  of  wild  lavender 
was  mingled  with  the  brackish  scent  of  the  sea. 
The  ground  was  soft  and  spongy  beneath  their 
feet,  and  a  breeze  as  soft  as  a  caress  blew  in  their 
faces.  Up  before  them  always,  gaunt  and  bare, 
surrounded  by  its  belts  of  weather-stricken  trees, 
stood  the  Red  Hall.  Andrew  looked  toward  it 
gloomily. 

"  Do  you  wonder,"  he  asked,  "  that  a  man  is 
sometimes  depressed  who  is  born  the  heir  to  a 
house  like  that,  and  to  fortunes  very  similar?  ' 

"  Are  you  poor?  "  she  asked  him.  "  I  thought 
perhaps  you  were,  as  your  brother  tried  to  make 
love  to  me." 

He  frowned  impatiently  at  her  words. 

"  For  Heaven's  sake,  child,"  he  said,  "  don't  be 
so  cynical !  Don't  fancy  that  every  kind  word  that 
is  spoken  to  you  is  spoken  for  your  wealth.    There 


{( 


186     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

are  sycophants  enough  in  the  world,  Heaven 
knows,  but  there  are  men  there  as  well.  Give  a 
few  the  credit  of  being  honest.  Try  and  remem* 
ber  that  you  are  —  " 

He  looked  at  her  and  away  again  toward  the 
sea. 

"  That  you  are,"  he  repeated,  "  young  enough 
and  attractive  enough  to  win  kind  words  for  your 
own  sake." 

"  Then,"  she  whispered,  leaning  towards  him, 

I  do  not  think  that  I  am  very  fortunate." 
Why  not?  "  he  asked. 

"  Because,"  she  answered,  '  one  person  who 
might  say  kind  things  to  me,  and  whom  my  money 
would  never  influence  a  little  bit  in  the  world,  does 
not  say  them." 

"  Are  you  sure,"  he  asked,  "  that  you  believe 
that  there  is  any  one  in  the  world  who  would  be 
content  to  take  you  without  a  penny?  ' 

She  shook  her  head. 

'  Not  that,"  she  said  sadly.  "  I  am  not  what 
you  call  conceited  enough  for  that,  but  I  would  like 
to  believe  that  I  might  have  a  kind  word  or  two  on 
my  own  account." 

She  tried  hard  to  see  his  face,  but  he  kept  it 
steadfastly  turned  away.  She  sighed.  Only  a  few 
yards  behind  the  maid  was  walking. 

"  Mr.  Andrew,"  she  said,  "  it  was  you  whom  I 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     187 

meant.  Won't  you  say  something  nice  to  me  for 
my  own  sake?  " 

They  were  nearing  the  Hall  now,  and  it  seemed 
natural  enough  that  he  should  hold  her  hand  for  a 
minute  in  his. 

"  I  will  tell  you,"  he  said  quietly,  "  that  your 
coming  has  been  a  pleasure,  and  your  going  will 
be  a  pain,  and  I  will  tell  you  that  you  have  left  an 
empty  place  that  no  one  else  can  fill.  You  have 
made  what  our  people  here  call  the  witch  music 
upon  the  marshes  for  me,  so  that  I  shall  never 
walk  here  again  as  long  as  I  live  without  hearing 
it  and  thinking  of  you." 

"Is  that  all?"  she  whispered. 

He  pretended  not  to  hear  her. 

"  I  am  nearly  double  your  age,"  he  said,  "  and 
I  have  lived  an  idle,  perhaps  a  worthless,  life.  I 
have  done  no  harm.  My  talents,  if  I  have  any, 
have  certainly  been  buried.  If  I  had  met  you  out 
in  the  world,  your  world,  well,  I  might  have  taught 
myself  to  forget  —  " 

He  broke  off  abruptly  in  his  sentence.  Cecil 
stood  before  them,  suddenly  emerged  from  the 
hand-gate  leading  into  the  Hall  gardens. 

"  At  last!  "  he  exclaimed,  taking  Jeanne  by  the 
hands.  "  The  Princess  is  distracted.  We  have  all 
been  distracted.  How  could  you  make  us  so  un- 
happy? " 


188     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

She  drew  her  hands  away  coldly. 

"  I  fancy  that  my  stepmother,"  she  said,  "  will 
have  survived  my  absence.  I  was  caught  in  a 
storm.  I  expect  that  your  brother  has  already  told 
you  about  it." 

He  looked  from  one  to  the  other. 

"  So  you  have  told  her,  Andrew,"  he  said 
simply. 

Andrew  nodded.  The  three  walked  up  toward 
the  house  in  somewhat  constrained  silence.  She 
was  trying  her  hardest  to  make  Andrew  look  at 
her,  and  he  was  trying  his  hardest  to  resist.  The 
Princess  came  out  to  them.  The  morning  was 
warm,  and  she  was  wearing  a  white  wrapper. 
Her  toilette  was  not  wholly  completed,  but  she 
was  sufficiently  picturesque. 

"  My  dear  Jeanne,"  she  cried,  "  you  have  nearly 
sent  us  mad  with  anxiety.  How  could  you  wander 
off  like  that!" 

Jeanne  stood  a  little  apart.  She  avoided  the 
Princess'  hands.  She  stood  upon  the  soft  turf 
with  her  hands  clasped,  her  cheeks  very  pale,  her 
eyes  bright  with  some  inward  excitement. 

"Do  you  wish  me  to  answer  that  question?' 
she  said. 

The  Princess  stared. 

14  What  do  you  mean,  my  child?  "  she  exclaimed. 

"  You  ask  me,"  Jeanne  said,  "  why  I  went  wan- 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     189 

dering  off  into  the  marshes.  I  will  tell  you.  It 
is  because  I  am  unhappy.  It  is  because  I  do  not 
like  the  life  into  which  you  have  brought  me,  nor 
the  people  with  whom  we  live.  I  do  not  like  late 
hours,  supper  parties  and  dinner  parties,  dances 
where  half  the  people  are  bourgeois,  and  where  all 
the  men  make  stupid  love  to  me.  I  do  not  like  the 
shops,  the  vulgar  shop  people,  fashionable  clothes, 
and  fashionable  promenading.  I  am  tired  of  it 
already.  If  I  am  rich,  why  may  I  not  buy  the 
right  to  live  as  I  choose?  " 

The  Princess  rarely  allowed  herself  to  show  sur- 
prise. At  this  moment,  however,  she  was  com- 
pletely overcome. 

"What  is  it  you  want,  then,  child?"  she  de- 
manded. 

"  I  should  like,"  Jeanne  answered,  "  to  buy  Mr. 
De  la  Borne's  house  upon  the  island,  and  live  there, 
with  just  a  couple  of  maids,  and  my  books.  I 
should  like  some  friends,  of  course,  but  I  should 
like  to  find  them  for  myself,  amongst  the  country 
people,  people  whom  I  could  trust  and  believe  in, 
not  people  whose  clothes  and  manners  and  speech 
are  all  hammered  out  into  a  type,  and  whose  real 
self  is  so  deeply  buried  that  you  cannot  tell  whether 
they  are  honest  or  rogues.  That  is  what  I  should 
like,  stepmother,  and  if  you  wish  to  earn  my  grati- 
tude, that  is  how  you  will  let  me  live." 


190     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

The  Princess  stared  at  the  child  as  though  she 
were  a  lunatic. 

"  Jeanne,"  she  exclaimed  weakly,  "  what  has 
become  of  you?  " 

"  Nothing,"  Jeanne  answered,  "  only  you  asked 
me  a  question,  and  I  felt  an  irresistible  desire  to 
answer  you  truthfully.  It  would  have  come  sooner 
or  later." 

Andrew  turned  slowly  toward  the  girl,  who 
stood  looking  at  her  stepmother  with  flushed 
cheeks  and  quivering  lips. 

"  Miss  Le  Mesurier,"  he  said,  "  on  one  con- 
dition I  will  sell  you  the  island,  but  on  only 
one." 

"  And  that  is?  "  she  asked. 

The  Princess  recovered  herself  just  in  time,  and 
sailed  in  between  them. 

"  Mr.  De  la  Borne,"  she  said,  "  my  daughter  is 
too  young  for  such  conversations.  For  two  years 
she  is  under  my  complete  guidance.  She  must  obey 
me  just  as  though  she  were  ten  years  older  and 
married,  and  I  her  husband.  The  law  has  given 
me  absolute  control  over  her.  You  understand 
that  yourself,  don't  you,  Jeanne?  " 

"  Yes,"  Jeanne  answered  quietly,  "  I  under- 
stand." 

"  Go  indoors,  please,"  the  Princess  said.  "  I 
have  something  to  say  to  Mr.  De  la  Borne.' 


5» 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     191 

11  And  I,  too,"  Jeanne  said.  "  Let  me  stay  and 
say  it.     I  will  not  be  five  minutes." 

The  Princess  pointed  toward  the  door. 

"  I  will  not  have  it,"  she  said  coldly.  "  Cecil, 
take  my  daughter  indoors.    I  insist  upon  it." 

She  turned  away  unwillingly.  The  Princess  took 
Andrew  by  the  arm  and  led  him  to  a  more  distant 
seat. 

"  Now,  if  you  please,  my  dear  Mr.  Andrew," 
she  said,  "  will  you  tell  me  what  it  is  that  you  have 
done  to  my  foolish  little  girl?" 


CHAPTER   XXI 

The  Princess  arranged  her  skirts  so  that  they 
drooped  gracefully,  and  turned  upon  her  com- 
panion with  one  of  those  slow  mysterious  smiles, 
which  many  people  described  but  none  could 
imitate. 

"  Mr.  De  la  Borne,"  she  said,  "  I  can  talk  to 
you  as  I  could  not  talk  to  your  brother,  because 
you  are  an  older  and  a  wiser  man.  You  may  not 
have  seen  much  of  the  world,  but  you  are  at  any 
rate  not  a  young  idiot  like  Cecil.  Will  you  listen 
to  me,  please?  " 

"  It  seems  to  me,"  Andrew  answered  drily, 
"  that  I  am  already  doing  so." 

"  I  am  not  going  to  ask  you,"  she  continued, 
"  whether  you  are  in  love  with  my  little  girl  or  not, 
because  the  whole  thing  is  too  ridiculous.  I  have 
no  doubt  that  she  has  some  sort  of  a  fancy  for  you. 
It  is  evident  that  she  has.  I  want  you  to  remember 
that  she  is  fresh  from  school,  that  as  yet  she  has 
not  entered  life,  and  that  a  few  months  ago  she 
did  not  know  a  man  from  a  gate-post.1 


»> 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     193 

"  An  admirable  simile,"  Andrew  murmured. 

"  What  I  want  you  to  understand  is,"  the  Prin- 
cess continued,  "  that  as  yet  she  cannot  possibly  be 
in  a  position  to  make  up  her  mind  as  to  her  future. 
She  has  seen  nothing  of  the  world,  and  what  she 
has  seen  has  been  the  least  favourable  side.  She 
has  a  perfectly  enormous  fortune,  so  ridiculously 
tied  up  that  although  I  am  never  out  of  debt  and 
always  borrowing  money,  I  cannot  touch  a  penny 
of  it,  not  even  with  her  help.  Very  soon  she  will 
be  of  age,  and  the  amount  of  her  fortune  will  be 
known.  I  can  assure  you  that  it  will  be  a  surprise 
to  every  one." 

Andrew  bowed  his  head  indifferently. 

"  Very  possibly,"  he  answered,  "  and  yet, 
madam,  if  your  daughter  has  the  wisdom  to  see 
that  the  matter  of  her  wealth  is  after  all  but  a  trifle 
amongst  the  conditions  which  make  for  happiness, 
why  should  you  deny  her  the  benefits  of  that  wis- 
dom ?  " 

"  My  dear  friend,"  she  continued  earnestly, 
"  for  this  reason  —  because  Jeanne  to-day  is  too 
young  to  choose  for  herself.  She  has  not  got  over 
that  sickly  sentimental  age,  when  a  girl  makes  a 
hero  of  anything  unusual  in  the  shape  of  a  man, 
and  finds  a  sort  of  unwholesome  satisfaction  in 
making  sacrifices  for  his  sake.  It  may  be  that 
Jeanne  may,  after  all,  look  to  what  you  call  the 


194     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

simple  life  for  happiness.  Well,  if  she  does  that 
after  a  year  or  so,  well  and  good.  But  she  shall 
not  do  so  with  my  consent,  without  indeed  my 
downright  opposition,  until  she  has  had  an  oppor- 
tunity of  testing  both  sides,  of  weighing  the  matter 
thoroughly  from  every  point  of  view.  Do  you  not 
agree  with  me,  Mr.  De  la  Borne?  " 

"  You  speak  reasonably,  madam,"  he  assented. 

"  Jeanne,"  she  continued,  "  has  perhaps  charmed 
you  a  little.  She  is,  after  all,  just  now  a  child  of 
nature.  She  is  something  of  an  artist,  too.  Beau- 
tiful places  and  sights  and  sounds  appeal  to  her. 

"  She  is  ready,  with  her  imperfect  experience, 
to  believe  that  there  is  nothing  greater  or  better 
worth  cultivating  in  life.  But  I  want  you  to  con- 
sider the  effects  of  heredity.  Jeanne  comes  from 
restless,  brilliant  people.  Her  mother  was  a  leader 
of  society,  a  pleasure-loving,  clever,  unscrupulous 
woman.  Her  father  was  a  financier  and  a  diplo- 
mat, many-sided,  versatile,  but  with  as  complex  a 
disposition  as  any  man  I  ever  met.  Jeanne  will 
ripen  as  the  years  go  on ;  something  of  her  mother, 
something  of  her  father  will  appear.  It  is  my 
place,  knowing  these  things,  to  see  that  she  does 
not  make  a  fatal  mistake.  All  that  I  say  to  you, 
Mr.  De  la  Borne,  is  to  let  her  go,  to  give  her  her 
chance,  to  let  her  see  with  both  eyes  before  she  does 
anything  irremediable.     I  think  that  I  may  almost 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     195 

appeal  to  you,  as  a  reasonable  man  and  a  gentle- 
man, to  help  me  in  this." 

Andrew  de  la  Borne  looked  out  through  the 
wizened  branches  of  his  stunted  trees,  to  the  white- 
flecked  sea  rolling  in  below.  The  Princess  was 
right.  He  knew  that  she  was  right.  Those  other 
thoughts  were  little  short  of  madness.  Jeanne  was 
no  coquette  at  heart,  but  she  was  a  child.  She  had 
great  responsibilities.  She  was  turned  into  the 
world  with  a  heavy  burden  upon  her  shoulders. 
It  was  not  he  or  any  man  who  could  help  her.  She 
must  fight  her  own  battle,  win  or  lose  her  own  hap- 
piness. A  few  years'  time  might  see  her  the  wife 
of  a  great  statesman  or  a  great  soldier,  proud  and 
happy  to  feel  herself  the  means  by  which  the  man 
she  loved  might  climb  one  step  higher  upon  the 
great  ladder  of  fame.  How  like  a  child's  dream 
these  few  days  upon  the  marshes,  talking  to  one 
who  was  no  more  than  a  looker-on  at  the  great 
things  of  life,  must  seem !  He  could  imagine  her 
thinking  of  them  with  a  shiver  as  she  remembered 
her  escape.  The  Princess  was  right,  she  was  very 
right  indeed.    He  rose  to  his  feet. 

"  Madam,"  he  said,  "  I  have  not  pretended  to 
misunderstand  you.  I  think  that  you  have  spoken 
wisely.  Your  stepdaughter  must  solve  for  herself 
the  great  riddle.  Tt  is  not  for  any  one  of  us  to 
handicap  her  in  her  choice  while  she  is  yet  a  child." 


196     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

"  You  are  going,  Mr.  De  la  Borne?  "  she  asked. 

He  pointed  to  a  brown-sailed  fishing-boat  pass- 
ing slowly  down  from  the  village  toward  the  sea. 

"  That  is  one  of  my  boats,"  he  said.  "  I  shall 
signal  to  her  from  the  island  to  call  for  me.  I 
need  a  change,  and  she  is  going  out  into  the  North 
Sea  for  five  weeks'  fishing." 

The  Princess  held  out  her  hand,  and  Andrew 
took  it  in  his. 

You  are  a  man,"  she  said.    "  I  wish  there  were 
more  of  your  sort  in  the  world  where  I  live." 

••••  •  •  *•• 

The  Princess  stood  for  a  moment  on  the  edge 
of  the  lawn,  watching  Andrew's  tall  figure  as  he 
strode  across  the  marsh  toward  the  village.  Never 
once  did  he  look  back  or  hesitate  on  his  swift,  vig- 
orous way.  Then  she  sighed  a  little  and  turned 
away  toward  the  house.  After  all,  this  was  a  man, 
although  he  was  so  far  removed  from  the  type  she 
knew  and  understood. 

Cecil  was  walking  restlessly  up  and  down  the 
hall  when  she  entered.  He  drew  her  eagerly  into 
the  library. 

"  Look  here,"  he  said,  "  Forrest  declares  that 
he  is  going.  He  is  upstairs  now  packing  his 
things." 

'  Your     brother,"      the      Princess      answered, 
"  scarcely  left  him  much  alternative." 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     197 

"  That's  all  very  well,"  Cecil  answered,  "  but 
if  he  goes  I  go.  I  am  not  going  to  be  left  here 
alone." 

The  Princess  looked  at  him,  and  the  colour  came 
into  his  cheeks.  It  is  never  well  for  a  man  when 
he  sees  such  a  look  upon  a  woman's  face. 

"  It  isn't  that  I'm  afraid,"  Cecil  declared.  "  I 
can  stand  any  ordinary  danger,  but  I  am  not  going 
to  be  left  shut  up  here  alone,  with  the  whole  re- 
sponsibility upon  me.  I  couldn't  do  it.  It  wouldn't 
be  fair  to  ask  me." 

"There  is  no  fresh  news,  I  suppose?'  the 
Princess  asked. 

"  None,"  Cecil  answered  gloomily.  "  If  only 
we  could  see  our  way  to  the  end  of  it,  I  shouldn't 
mind." 

The  Princess  was  thoughtful  for  a  few  mo- 
ments. 

"Well,"  she  said,  "  I  don't  know,  after  all,  if 
Forrest  need  go  just  yet.  Your  brother  has  made 
up  his  mind  to  go  fishing  for  several  weeks.  I 
think  that  he  is  going  to  start  to-day." 

"Do  you  mean  it?'  Cecil  exclaimed,  incredu- 
lously. 

The  Princess  nodded. 

"  He  has  been  philandering  with  Jeanne,"  she 
said,  "  and  his  magnificent  conscience  is  taking  him 
out  into  the  North  Sea." 


198     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

Cecil's  features  relaxed.  After  all,  though  he 
played  at  maturity,  he  was  little  more  than  a  boy. 

"  Fancy  old  Andrew!  "  he  exclaimed.  "  Gone 
on  a  child  like  Miss  Jeanne,  too!  Well,  anyhow, 
that  makes  it  all  right  about  Forrest  staying, 
doesn't  it?" 

'  He  shall  stop,"  the  Princess  answered  slowly. 
"  Jeanne  and  I  will  stay,  too,  until  Monday.  Per- 
haps by  that  time  —  " 

"  By  that  time,"  Cecil  repeated,  "  something 
may  have  happened." 


BOOK    II 
CHAPTER    I 

His  Grace  the  Duke  of  Westerham  stepped  for- 
ward from  the  hearthrug,  in  the  middle  of  which 
he  had  been  standing,  and  held  out  both  his  hands. 
His  lips  were  parted  in  a  smile,  and  there  was  a 
twinkle  in  his  eyes. 

"  My  dear  Andrew,"  he  exclaimed,  "  it  is  de- 
lightful to  see  you.  You  seem  to  bring  the  salt  of 
the  North  Sea  into  our  frowsy  city." 

Andrew  grasped  his  friend's  hands. 

"  I  have  been  fishing  with  some  of  my  men  for 
three  weeks,"  he  said,  "  off  the  Dogger  Bank.  The 
salt  does  cling  to  one,  you  know,  and  I  suppose  I 
am  as  black  as  a  nigger." 

The  Duke  sighed  a  little. 

"  My  dear  Andrew,"  he  said,  "  you  make  one 
wonder  whether  it  is  worth  while  to  count  for  any- 
thing at  all  in  the  world.  You  represent  the  tri- 
umph of  physical  fitness.  You  could  break  me,  or 
a  dozen  like  me,  in  your  hands.  You  know  what 
the   faddists  of  the  moment  say?     They  declare 


200     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

that  brains  and  genius  have  had  their  day — that 
the  greatest  man  in  the  world  nowadays  is  the 
strongest." 

Andrew  smiled  as  he  settled  down  in  the  arm- 
chair which  his  friend  had  wheeled  towards  him. 

'  You  do  not  believe  in  your  own  doctrines,"  he 
remarked.  "  You  would  not  part  with  a  tenth 
part  of  your  brains  for  all  my  muscle." 

The  Duke  paused  to  think. 

"  It  is  not  only  the  muscle,"  he  said.  '  It  is  this 
appearance  of  splendid  physical  perfection.  You 
have  but  to  show  yourself  in  a  London  drawing- 
room,  and  you  will  establish  a  cult.  Do  you  want 
to  be  worshipped,  friend  Andrew  —  to  wear  a 
laurel  crown,  and  have  beautiful  ladies  kneeling 
at  your  feet?  " 

"Chuck  it!'  Andrew  remarked  good  hu- 
mouredly.  '  I  didn't  come  here  to  be  chaffed.  I 
came  here  on  a  serious  mission." 

The  Duke  nodded. 

"  It  must  indeed  have  been  serious,"  he  said, 
"  for  you  to  have  had  your  hair  cut  and  your  beard 
trimmed,  and  to  have  attired  yourself  in  the  gar- 
ments of  civilization.  You  are  the  last  man  whom 
I  should  have  expected  to  have  seen  in  a  coat  which 
might  have  been  cut  by  Poole,  if  it  wasn't,  and 
wearing  patent  boots." 

"  Jolly   uncomfortable   they   are,"   Andrew   re- 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     201 

marked,  looking  at  them.  "  However,  I  didn't 
want  to  be  turned  away  from  your  doors,  and  I 
still  have  a  few  friends  in  town  whom  I  daren't 
disgrace.  Honestly,  Berners,  I  came  up  to  ask 
you  something." 

The  Duke  was  sympathetic  but  silent. 

"Well?"  he  remarked  encouragingly. 

"The  fact  is,"  Andrew  continued,  "  I  wonder 
whether  you  could  help  me  to  get  something  to  do. 
We  have  decided  to  let  the  Red  Hall,  Cecil  and  I. 
The  rents  have  gone  down  to  nothing,  and  alto- 
gether things  are  pretty  bad  with  us.  I  don't  know 
that  I'm  good  for  anything.  I  don't  see,  to  tell 
you  the  truth,  exactly  what  place  there  is  in  the 
world  that  I  could  fill.  Nevertheless,  I  want  to  do 
something.  I  love  the  villager's  life,  but  after  all 
there  are  other  things  to  be  considered.  I  don't 
want  to  become  quite  a  clod." 

The  Duke  produced  a  cigar  box,  passed  it  to 
Andrew,  and  deliberately  lighted  a  cigar  himself. 

"  Friend  Andrew,"  he  said,  "  you  have  set  me  a 
puzzle.  You  have  set  me  a  good  many  since  I 
used  to  run  errands  for  you  at  Eton,  but  I  think 
that  this  is  the  toughest." 

Andrew  nodded. 

"You'll  think  your  way  through  it,  if  any  one 
can,"  he  remarked.  "  T  don't  expect  anything,  of 
course,  that  would  enable  me  to  afford  cigars  like 


202     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

this,  but  I'd  be  glad  to  find  some  work  to  do,  and 
I'd  be  glad  to  be  paid  something  for  it." 

The  Duke  was  silent  for  a  moment.  He  looked 
down  at  his  cigar  and  then  suddenly  up  again. 

"  Has  that  young  idiot  of  a  brother  of  yours 
been  making  a  fool  of  himself?  "  he  asked. 

"  Cecil  is  never  altogether  out  of  trouble,"  An- 
drew answered  drily.  "  He  seems  to  have  taken 
bridge  up  with  rather  unfortunate  results,  and  there 
were  some  other  debts  which  had  to  be  paid,  but 
we  needn't  talk  about  those.  The  point  is  that 
we're  jolly  well  hard  up  for  a  year  or  two.  He's 
got  to  work,  and  so  have  I.  If  it  wasn't  for  look- 
ing after  him,  I  should  go  to  Canada  to-mor- 
row." 

"D d  young  idiot!"   the   Duke  muttered. 

"  He's  spent  his  own  money  and  yours  too,  I  sup- 
pose.   Never  mind,  the  money's  gone." 

"  It  isn't  only  the  money,"  Andrew  interrupted. 
"  The  fact  is,  I'm  not  altogether  satisfied,  as  I  told 
you  before,  with  living  just  for  sport.  I'm  not  a 
prejudiced  person.  I  know  that  there  are  greater 
things  in  the  world,  and  I  don't  want  to  lose  sight 
of  them  altogether.  We  De  la  Bornes  have  con- 
tributed poets  and  soldiers  and  sailors  and  states- 
men to  the  history  of  our  country,  for  many  gen- 
erations. I  don't  want  to  go  down  to  posterity  as 
altogether  a  drone.     Of  course,  I'm  too  late  for 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     203 

anything  really  worth  doing.  I  know  that  just  as 
well  as  you  can  tell  me.  At  the  same  time  I  want 
to  do  something,  and  I  would  rather  not  go  abroad, 
at  any  rate  to  stay.  Can  you  suggest  anything  to 
me  ?  I  know  it's  jolly  difficult,  but  you  were  always 
one  of  those  sort  of  fellows  who  seem  to  see  round 
the  corner." 

"Do  you  want  a  permanent  job?"  the  Duke 
asked.  "  Or  would  a  temporary  one  fit  you  up  for 
a  time?  " 

"  A  temporary  one  would  be  all  right,  if  it  was 
in  my  line,"  Andrew  answered. 

"  We've  got  to  send  three  delegates  to  a  con- 
vention to  be  held  at  The  Hague  in  a  fortnight's 
time,  for  the  revision  of  the  International  Fishing 
laws,"  the  Duke  remarked.  "  Could  you  take  that 
on?" 

"  I  should  think  so,"  Andrew  answered.  "  I've 
been  out  with  the  men  from  our  part  of  the  world 
since  I  was  a  child,  and  I  know  pretty  well  all  that 
there  is  to  be  known  on  our  side  about  it.  What 
is  the  convention  about?  ' 

"  There  are  at  least  a  dozen  points  to  be  con- 
sidered," the  Duke  answered.  "  I'll  send  you 
the  papers  to  any  address  you  like,  to-morrow. 
They're  at  my  office  now  in  Downing  Street.  Look 
'em  through,  and  see  whether  you  think  you  could 
take  it  on.    I  have  two  men  already  appointed,  but 


204     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

they  are  both  lawyers,  and  I  wanted  some  one  who 
knew  more  about  the  practical  side  of  it." 

"  I  should  think,"  Andrew  remarked,  "  that  this 
is  my  job  down  to  the  ground.    What's  the  fee?  " 

"  The  fee's  all  right,"  the  Duke  answered. 
"  You  won't  grumble  about  that,  I  promise  you. 
You'll  get  a  lump  sum,  and  so  much  a  day,  but  the 
whole  thing,  of  course,  will  be  over  in  a  fortnight. 
What  to  do  with  you  after  that  I  can't  for  the 
moment  think." 

"  We  may  hit  upon  something,"  Andrew  said 
cheerfully.  "What  are  you  doing  for  lunch? 
Will  you  come  round  to  the  '  Travellers '  with 
me?  It's  the  only  London  club  I've  kept  going, 
but  I  dare  say  we  can  get  something  fit  to  eat 
there." 

"  I'm  jolly  sure  of  it,"  the  Duke  answered,  "  but 
while  you're  in  London  you're  going  to  do  your 
lunching  with  me.  We'll  go  to  the  Athenaeum 
and  show  these  sickly-looking  scholars  and  bishops 
what  a  man  should  look  like.  It's  almost  time  for 
luncheon,  isn't  it?  " 

"  Past,"  Andrew  answered.  "  It  was  half-past 
twelve  when  I  got  here." 

41  Then  we  will  leave  at  once,"  the  Duke  de- 
clared. "  I  have  nothing  to  do  this  morning,  for- 
tunately. You  don't  care  about  driving,  I  know. 
We'll  walk.    It  isn't  half  a  mile." 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES    205 

They  turned  into  the  street  together. 

11  By  the  by,"  the  Duke  asked,  "  what  has  be- 
come of  your  brother's  friends?  I  mean  the  little 
party  that  we  broke  into  so  unceremoniously." 

"  The  Princess  and  Miss  Le  Mesurier  are,  I  be- 
lieve, in  London,"  Andrew  answered.  "  I  was 
very  surprised  to  hear  this  morning  that  Forrest 
was  still  down  at  the  Red  Hall  with  Cecil.  By 
the  by,  Ronald  has  turned  up  again,  of  course?  " 

The  Duke  hesitated  for  so  long  that  Andrew 
turned  towards  him,  and  noticed  for  the  first  time 
the  anxious  lines  in  his  face. 

"  Since  the  day  he  left  the  Red  Hall,"  the  Duke 
said,  "  Ronald  has  neither  been  seen  nor  heard 
from.  I  forgot  that  you  had  been  outside  civiliza- 
tion for  nearly  a  month.  Although  I  have  tried 
hard,  I  have  not  been  able  to  keep  the  affair  alto- 
gether out  of  the  papers." 

Andrew  was  thunderstruck. 

"  Good  God !  "  he  exclaimed.  "  Why,  Berners, 
this  is  one  of  the  strangest  things  I  ever  heard  of. 
What  are  you  doing  about  it?  " 

"  I  am  employing  detectives,"  the  Duke  an- 
swered. "  I  do  not  see  what  else  I  could  do.  They 
have  been  down  to  the  Red  Hall.  In  fact  I  believe 
one  of  them  is  still  in  the  vicinity.  Your  brother's 
story  as  to  his  departure  seems  to  be  quite  in  order, 
although  no  one  at  the  railway  station  is  able  to 


206    JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

remember  his  travelling  by  that  train.  They  seem 
to  remember  the  car,  however,  which  is  practically 
the  same  thing,  and  several  people  saw  Major 
Forrest  bringing  it  back  early  in  the  morning." 

"  Did  any  one,"  Andrew  asked  slowly,  "  see 
Lord  Ronald  in  the  car  on  his  way  to  the  station?  " 

"  Not  a  soul,"  the  Duke  answered. 

Andrew  was  honestly  perplexed.  Jeanne's  state- 
ment that  she  had  seen  Forrest  leaving  the  Red 
Hall  with  the  car  empty  except  for  himself,  he  had 
never  regarded  seriously.  Even  now  he  could  only 
conclude  that  she  had  been  mistaken. 

"  Have  any  large  cheques  been  presented  against 
your  brother's  account?  "  he  asked. 

The  Duke  shook  his  head. 

"  Not  one,"  he  answered. 

"  Have  the  detectives  any  clue  at  all? ' 

"  Not  the  ghost  of  one,"  the  Duke  answered. 
rA  Ronald  had  a  few  harmless  little  entanglements, 
but  absolutely  nothing  that  could  have  proved  of 
any  anxiety  to  him.  He  had  several  engagements 
during  the  last  ten  days  which  I  know  that  he 
meant  to  keep.  Something  must  have  happened  to 
him,  God  knows  when  or  where !  But  here  we  are 
at  the  club.  Andrew,  I  see  that  you  have  no  um- 
brella, so  I  need  not  repeat  the  old  joke  about  the 
bishops." 

"  What  a   selfish   fellow   I   am!"  Andrew  re- 


JEANNE    OF    THE    MARSHES     207 

marked,  as  they  seated  themselves  at  a  small  table 
in  the  luncheon  room.  "  Here  have  I  been  bother- 
ing you  about  my  affairs,  and  all  the  time  you  have 
had  this  thing  on  your  mind.  Berners,  I  want  you 
to  tell  me  something." 

"  Go  ahead,"  the  Duke  answered. 

"  Have  you  any  idea  in  your  head  that  Ronald 
has  come  to  any  harm  at  the  Red  Hall?  " 

The  Duke  shook  his  head. 

"No!"  he  answered  decidedly.  "Frankly,  if 
he  had  been  there  with  Forrest  alone,  that  would 
have  been  my  first  idea,  but  with  your  brother 
there,  and  the  Princess,  it  is  impossible  to  suspect 
anything,  even  if  one  knew  what  to  suspect.  The 
only  possible  clue  as  to  his  disappearance  which  is 
connected  in  any  way  with  the  Red  Hall  is  that 
I  understand  he  was  paying  attentions  to  Miss  Le 
Mesurier,  which  she  was  disinclined  to  accept." 

Andrew  nodded. 

"  I  think,"  he  said,  "  that  is  probable." 

"  On  the  other  hand,"  the  Duke  continued, 
"  Ronald  isn't  in  the  least  the  sort  of  man  to  make 
away  with  himself  or  hide,  because  a  girl,  whom 
he  could  not  have  known  very  well,  refused  to 
marry  him." 

"  Have  you  seen  anything  of  the  Princess  in 
town?"  Andrew  asked,  a  little  irrelevantly. 

"  I  met  her  with  her  stepdaughter  at  Hereford 


208    JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

House  last  night,"  the  Duke  answered.  "  The 
Princess  was  looking  as  brilliant  as  ever,  but  the 
little  girl  was  pale  and  bored.  She  had  a  dozen 
men  around  her,  and  not  a  smile  for  one  of  them. 
Dull  little  thing,  I  should  think." 

Andrew  said  nothing.  He  was  looking  out  of 
the  window  upon  Pall  Mall,  but  his  eyes  saw  a 
little  sandy  hillock  with  blades  of  sprouting  grass. 
Behind,  the  lavender-streaked  marsh;  in  front,  the 
yellow  sands  and  the  rippling  sea.  The  sun  seemed 
to  warm  his  cheeks,  the  salt  wind  blew  in  his  face. 
Westerham  wondered  for  a  moment  what  his 
friend  saw  in  the  grey  flagged  street  to  bring  that 
faint  reminiscent  smile  to  his  lips. 

A  messenger  from  the  hall  outside  came  in,  and 
respectfully  addressed  the  Duke. 

"  Your  Grace  is  wanted  upon  the  telephone,"  he 
announced. 

The  Duke  excused  himself.  He  was  absent  only 
for  a  few  minutes,  and  when  he  returned  and  took 
his  place  he  leaned  over  towards  Andrew. 

"  My  message  was  from  the  detective,"  he  said. 
"  He  wants  to  see  me.  In  fact,  he  is  coming  round 
here  directly." 


CHAPTER    II 

Cecil  came  face  to  face  with  his  brother  in  the 
room  where  refreshments  were  being  dispensed  by 
solemn-looking  footmen  and  trim  parlour-maids. 
(He  stared  at  him  for  a  moment  in  surprise. 

"  What  on  earth  are  you  doing  here,  Andrew?  ': 
he  asked. 

"  Exactly  what  I  was  wondering  myself,"  An- 
drew answered,  setting  down  his  empty  glass.  "  I 
met  Bellamy  Smith  this  afternoon  in  Bond  Street, 
and  he  asked  me  to  dine,  without  saying  anything 
about  this  sort  of  show  afterwards.  By  the  by, 
Cecil,"  he  added,  "what  are  you  doing  in  town? 
I  thought  you  said  that  you  were  not  coming  up 
until  the  late  autumn." 

"  No  more  I  am,  for  any  length  of  time,"  Cecil 
answered.  '  I  am  up  for  the  day,  back  to-morrow. 
There  were  one  or  two  things  I  wanted,  and  it  was 
easier  to  come  up  and  see  about  them  than  to 
write." 

"  Is  Forrest  still  with  you  ?  "  Andrew  asked. 

Cecil  hesitated,  and  his  brother  had  an  unpleas- 
ant conviction  that  for  a  moment  he  was  uncertain 
whether  to  tell  the  truth  or  no. 


210     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

"Yes!"  Cecil  answered,  "he  is  still  there.  I 
know  you  don't  like  him,  Andrew,  but  he  really 
isn't  a  bad  sort,  and  he's  quite  a  sportsman." 

1  Does  he  play  cards  with  you  ?  "  Andrew  asked. 
'  Never  even  suggested  it,"   Cecil  declared  ea- 
gerly.    "  Fact  is,  we're  out  shooting  all  day,  duck 
shooting,  or  fishing,  or  motoring,  and  we  go  to  bed 
soon  after  dinner." 

"  You  can't  come  to  much  harm  at  that,"  An- 
drew admitted.  "  By  the  by,  do  you  know  that 
Engleton  has  never  turned  up?  " 

"  I  have  heard  so,"  Cecil  admitted.  "  I  am  not 
so  surprised." 

"  Why  not?  "  Andrew  asked. 

Cecil  raised  his  eyebrows  in  a  superior  manner. 

"  Well,"  he  said,  "  I  know  he  was  very  sick 
about  his  brother  looking  too  closely  into  his  con- 
cerns. He  has  a  little  affair  on  just  now  that  he 
wants  to  keep  to  himself,  and  I  think  that  that  is 
the  reason  he  went  off  so  quietly." 

"  His  brother  is  very  upset  about  it,"  Andrew 
remarked. 

"  Oh !  the  Duke  was  always  a  heavy  old  stick," 
Cecil  answered.  "  I  see  you've  been  doing  your 
duty  to-night,"  he  added,  making  a  determined 
effort  to  change  the  conversation. 

Andrew  nodded. 

"Do  I  look  so  hot?"  he  asked.     "I  am  not 


JEANNE    OF   THE    xMARSHES    211 

used  to  these  close  rooms,  or  dancing  either.  Un- 
fortunately they  seem  short  of  men,  and  Mrs.  Bel- 
lamy Smith  had  me  set." 

Cecil  grinned. 

"  That's  the  worst  of  dining  before  a  dance,"  he 
remarked.  "  You're  pretty  well  cornered  before 
the  crowd  comes.  Upon  my  word,  old  chap,"  he 
added,  looking  his  brother  up  and  down  with  an 
air  of  kindly  patronage,  "  you  don't  turn  out  half 
badly.     Country  tailor  still,  eh?  " 

"  Mind  your  own  business,  you  young  jacka- 
napes," Andrew  answered.  "  Do  you  think  that 
no  one  can  wear  town  clothes  except  yourself?  ' 

Cecil  laughed.  After  all,  considering  every- 
thing, Andrew  was  a  good-natured  fellow. 

"  By  the  by,"  he  said,  "  do  you  know  who  is 
here  this  evening?  " 

Andrew  demolished  another  sandwich. 

"  Every  one,  I  should  think,"  he  answered.  "  I 
never  saw  such  a  crowd  in  my  life." 

"  The  Princess  and  Jeanne  are  here,"  Cecil  said. 
"  I  don't  suppose  we  shall  either  of  us  get  near 
them.  People  are  getting  to  know  about  Jeanne's 
little  dot,  and  they  are  fairly  mobbed  everywhere." 

Andrew  stood  for  a  moment  quite  still.  His 
first  emotion  was  one  of  dismay,  and  Cecil,  no- 
ticing it,  laughed  at  him. 

"  You  can  go  ahead  with  your  little  flirtation,'* 


212     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

he  remarked.  "  I  had  quite  forgotten  that.  You 
needn't  consider  me.  I  haven't  a  chance  with 
Miss  Jeanne.  She's  too  cranky  a  young  person 
for  me.  I  like  something  with  a  little  more  go 
in  it." 

Cecil  drifted  away,  and  Andrew  glanced  at  his 
card.  There  were  two  dances  for  which  he  was 
still  engaged,  and  he  made  his  way  slowly  back 
to  the  ballroom.  There  was  a  slight  block  at  the 
entrance,  and  he  had  to  stand  aside  to  let  several 
couples  pass  out.  One  of  the  last  of  these  was 
Jeanne,  on  the  arm  of  young  Bellamy  Smith.  An- 
drew stood  quite  still  looking  at  her.  He  saw  her 
start  for  a  moment  as  she  recognized  him,  and  her 
eyes  swept  him  over  with  a  half  incredulous,  half 
startled  expression.  She  drew  a  little  breath.  And 
then  Andrew  saw  her  suddenly  and  instinctively 
stiffen.  She  looked  him  in  the  face  and  bowed 
very  slightly,  without  the  vestige  of  a  smile. 

"  How  do  you  do,  Mr.  De  la  Borne?  "  she  said 
as  she  passed  on,  without  taking  the  slightest  no- 
tice of  the  hand,  which,  forgetting  where  he  was, 
he  had  half  extended  towards  her. 

Andrew  went  on  into  the  ballroom,  found  his 
partner,  and  danced  with  her.  As  soon  as  he  could 
he  made  his  adieux  and  hurried  off  to  the  cloak- 
room. His  coat  was  already  upon  his  arm  when 
Cecil  discovered  him. 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     213 

"  What  are  you  bolting  off  for,  old  man?  "  he 
asked. 

"  I've  had  enough,"  Andrew  answered.  "  I 
can't  stand  the  atmosphere,  and  I  hate  dancing, 
as  you  know.  See  you  to-morrow,  Cecil.  I  want 
to  have  a  talk  with  you.  I  am  going  away  for  a 
few  weeks." 

"  Right  oh!  "  Cecil  answered.  "  But  you  can't 
go  just  yet.  Mademoiselle  Le  Mesurier  sent  me 
for  you.    She  wants  to  speak  to  you  at  once." 

Andrew  hesitated. 

"  Do  you  mean  this,  Cecil?  "  he  asked. 

"  Of  course  I  do,"  Cecil  answered.  "  I  haven't 
been  rushing  about  looking  into  every  corner  of 
the  place  for  nothing.  Come  along.  I'll  take  you 
to  where  she  is." 

Andrew  handed  back  his  coat  and  hat  to  the 
attendant,  and  followed  Cecil  into  the  ballroom. 
In  a  passage  leading  to  the  billiard-room,  where 
several  chairs  had  been  arranged  for  sitting  out, 
Jeanne  was  ensconced,  with  two  men  leaning  over 
her.  She  waved  them  away  when  she  saw  who  it 
was  coming.  Without  a  smile,  or  the  vestige  of 
one,  she  motioned  to  Andrew  to  take  the  vacant 
seat  by  her  side. 

"  I  have  executed  your  commission,  Miss  Le 
Mesurier,"  Cecil  said,  bowing  before  her.  "  I  will 
claim  my  reward  when  we  meet  again." 


214    JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

He  sauntered  away,  leaving  them  alone.  Jeanne 
turned  at  once  towards  her  companion. 

"  I  am  sorry,"  she  said,  "  if  my  sending  for  you 
was  in  any  way  an  annoyance.  I  understand,  of 
course,  you  have  made  it  quite  clear  to  me,  that 
our  little  friendship,  or  whatever  you  may  choose 
to  call  it,  is  at  an  end.  But  I  do  insist  upon  know- 
ing what  it  was  that  you  and  my  stepmother  were 
discussing  for  nearly  half  an  hour  in  the  gardens 
of  the  Red  Hall.  The  truth,  mind.  You  and  I 
should  owe  one  another  that." 

"  We  talked  of  you,"  he  answered.  "  What 
other  subject  can  you  possibly  imagine  your  step- 
mother and  I  could  have  in  common?  " 

"  That  is  a  good  start,"  she  answered.  "  Now 
tell  me  the  rest." 

"  I  am  not  sure,"  he  answered,  "  that  I  feel  in- 
clined to  do  that." 

She  leaned  forward  and  looked  at  him.  Un- 
willingly he  turned  his  head  to  meet  her  gaze. 

"  You  must  tell  me,  please,"  she  said.  "  I  insist 
upon  knowing." 

"  Your  stepmother,"  he  said,  "  was  perfectly 
reasonable  and  very  candid.  She  reminded  me 
that  you  were  a  great  heiress,  and  that  as  yet  you 
had  seen  nothing  of  the  world.  I  do  not  know 
why  she  thought  it  necessary  to  point  this  out  to 
me,  except  that  perhaps  she  thought  that  in  some 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     215 
mad  moment  I  might  have  conceived  the  idea  that 


you 


"  That  I?  "  she  repeated  softly,  as  he  hesitated. 

He  set  his  teeth  hard  and  frowned. 

"  You  know  what  I  mean,"  he  said  coldly. 
"  Your  stepmother  is  a  clever  woman,  and  a 
woman  of  the  world.  She  takes  into  account  all 
contingencies,  never  mind  how  improbable  they 
might  be.  She  was  afraid  that  I  might  think 
things  were  possible  between  us  which  after  all 
must  always  remain  outside  serious  consideration. 
She  wanted  to  warn  me.  That  was  all.  It  was 
kindness,  but  I  am  sure  that  it  was  unnecessary." 

"  You  are  not  very  lucid,"  she  murmured.  '  Is 
is  because  I  am  a  great  heiress,  then,  that  you  go 
off  fishing  for  three  weeks  without  saying  good- 
bye ;  that  you  leave  our  next  meeting  to  happen  by 
chance  in  the  last  place  I  should  have  expected  to 
see  you?  What  do  you  think  of  me,  Mr.  Andrew? 
Do  you  imagine  that  I  am  of  my  stepmother's 
world,  or  ever  could  be?  Have  the  hours  we  have 
spent  together  taught  you  nothing  different?  ' 

"  You  are  a  child,"  he  answered  evasively. 
"  You  do  not  know  as  yet  to  what  world  you  will 
belong.  It  is  as  your  stepmother  said  to  me.  With 
your  fortune  you  may  marry  into  one  of  the  great 
families  of  Europe.  You  might  almost  take  a  part 
in  the  world's  history.    It  is  not  for  such  as  myself 


216    JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

to  dream  of  interfering  with  a  destiny  such  as 
yours  may  be." 

"  For  that  reason,"  she  remarked,  leaning  a  little 
towards  him,  "  you  went  fishing  in  a  dirty  little 
boat  with  those  common  sailors  for  three  weeks. 
For  that  reason  you  bow  to  me  when  you  meet  me 
as  though  I  were  an  acquaintance  whom  you  barely 
remembered.  For  that  reason,  I  suppose,  you  were 
hurrying  away  when  your  brother  found  you." 

"  It  was  the  inevitable  thing  to  do,"  he  an- 
swered. "  You  may  think  to-day  one  thing,  but 
it  is  for  others  who  are  older  and  wiser  than  you 
to  remember  that  you  are  only  a  child,  and  that 
you  have  not  realized  yet  the  place  you  fill  in  the 
world.  If  it  pleases  you  to  know  it,  let  me  tell  you 
that  I  am  very  glad  indeed  that  you  came  to  Salt- 
house.  You  have  made  me  think  more  seriously. 
You  have  made  me  understand  that  after  all  the 
passing  life  is  short,  that  idle  days  and  physical 
pleasures  do  not  make  up  the  life  which  is  worthi- 
est. I  am  going  to  try  other  things.  For  the  in- 
spiration which  bids  me  seek  them,  I  have  to  thank 
you." 

She  touched  his  great  brown  hand  with  the  deli- 
cate tips  of  her  fingers. 

"  Dear  Mr.  Andrew,"  she  said,  "  you  are  very 
big  and  strong  and  obstinate.  You  will  have  your 
own  way  however  I  may  plead.     Go,  then,  and 


JEANNE    OF    THE    MARSHES     217 

strike  your  great  blows  upon  the  anvil  of  life. 
You  say  that  I  am  passing  the  threshold,  that  as 
yet  I  am  ignorant.  Very  well,  I  will  make  my 
way  in  with  the  throng.  I  will  look  about  me, 
and  see  what  this  thing,  life,  is,  and  how  much 
more  it  may  mean  to  me  because  I  chance  to  be  the 
possessor  of  many  ill-earned  millions.  Before  very 
long  we  will  meet  again  and  compare  notes,  only 
I  warn  you,  Mr.  Andrew,  that  if  any  change 
comes,  it  comes  to  you.  I  am  one  of  the  outsiders 
who  has  looked  into  life,  and  who  knows  very  well 
what  is  there  even  from  across  the  borders." 

He  rose  at  once.  To  stay  there  was  worse  tor- 
ture than  to  go. 

"  So  it  shall  be,"  he  said.  "  We  will  each  take 
our  draught  of  experience,  and  we  will  meet  again 
and  speak  of  the  flavour  of  it.  Only  remember 
that  whatever  may  be  your  lot,  hold  fast  to  those 
simple  things  which  we  have  spoken  of  together, 
and  the  darkest  days  of  all  can  never  come." 

She  gave  him  her  hand,  and  flashed  a  look  at 
him  which  he  was  not  likely  to  forget. 

"  So !  "  she  said  simply.    "  I  shall  remember." 


CHAPTER    III 

The  Princess  was  enjoying  a  few  minutes  of 
well-earned  repose.  She  had  lunched  with  Jeanne 
at  Ranelagh,  where  they  had  been  the  guests  of  a 
lady  who  certainly  had  the  right  to  call  herself 
one  of  the  leaders  of  Society.  The  newspapers  and 
the  Princess'  confidences  to  a  few  of  her  friends 
had  done  all  that  was  really  necessary.  Jeanne 
was  accepted,  and  the  Princess  passed  in  her  wake 
through  those  innermost  portals  which  at  one  time 
had  come  perilously  near  being  closed  upon  her. 
She  was  lying  on  a  sofa  in  a  white  negligee  gown. 
Jeanne  had  just  brought  in  a  pile  of  letters,  mostly 
invitations.  The  Princess  glanced  them  through, 
and  smiled  as  she  tossed  them  on  one  side. 

"  How  these  people  amuse  one  !  "  she  exclaimed. 
"  Eighteen  months  ago  I  was  in  London  alone,  and 
not  a  soul  came  near  me.  To-day,  because  I  am 
the  guardian  of  a  young  lady  whom  the  world 
believes  to  be  a  great  heiress,  people  tumble  over 
one  another  with  their  invitations  and  their  cour- 
tesies." 

Jeanne  looked  up. 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     219 

"  Why  do  you  say  !  believes  to  be?  '  "  she  asked 
quickly.      '  I  am  a  great  heiress,  am  I  not?  " 

The  Princess  smiled,  a  slow,  enigmatic  smile, 
which  might  have  meant  anything,  but  which  to 
Jeanne  meant  nothing  at  all. 

"  My  dear  child,"  she  said,  "  of  course  you  are. 
The  papers  have  said  so,  Society  has  believed  them. 
If  I  were  to  go  out  and  declare  right  and  left  that 
you  had  nothing  but  a  beggarly  twenty  thousand 
pounds  or  so,  I  should  not  find  a  soul  to  believe 
me.  Every  one  would  believe  that  I  was  trying 
to  scare  them  off,  to  keep  you  for  myself,  or  some 
one  of  my  own  choice.  Really  it  is  a  very  odd 
world!" 

Jeanne  was  looking  a  little  pensive.  Her  step- 
mother sometimes  completely  puzzled  her. 

"Who  are  the  trustees  of  my  money?'  she 
asked,  a  little  abruptly. 

The  Princess  raised  her  eyebrows. 

"  Bless  the  child!  "  she  exclaimed.  "What  do 
you  know  about  trustees  ?  " 

"  When  I  am  of  age,"  Jeanne  said  calmly, 
"  which  will  happen  sometime  or  other,  I  suppose, 
ft  will  interest  me  to  know  exactly  how  much 
money  I  have  and  how  it  is  invested." 

The  Princess  looked  a  little  startled. 

"  My  dear  Jeanne,"  she  exclaimed,  "  pray  don't 
talk  like  that  until  after  you  are  married.     Your 


220    JEANNE    OF   THE   MARSHES 

money  is  being  very  well  looked  after.  What  I 
should  like  you  to  understand  is  this.  You  are 
going  to  meet  to-night  at  dinner  the  man  whom  I 
intend  you  to  marry." 

Jeanne  raised  her  eyebrows. 

"  I  had  some  idea,"  she  murmured,  "  of  choos- 
ing a  husband  for  myself." 

"  Impossible !  "  the  Princess  declared.  "  You 
have  had  no  experience,  and  you  are  far  too  im- 
portant a  person  to  be  allowed  to  think  of  such  a 
thing.  To-night  at  dinner  you  will  meet  the  Count 
de  Brensault.  He  is  a  Belgian  of  excellent  family, 
quite  rich,  and  very  much  attracted  by  you.  I 
consider  him  entirely  suitable,  and  I  have  advised 
him  to  speak  to  you  seriously." 

"  Thank  you,"  Jeanne  said,  "  but  I  don't  like 
Belgians,  and  I  do  not  mean  to  marry  one." 

The  Princess  laughed,  a  little  unpleasantly. 

"  My  dear  child,"  she  said,  "  you  may  make  a 
fuss  about  it,  but  eventually  you  will  have  to  marry 
whom  I  say.  You  must  remember  that  you  are 
French,  not  English,  and  that  I  am  your  guardian. 
If  you  want  to  choose  for  yourself,  you  will  have 
to  wait  three  or  four  years  before  the  law  allows 
you  to  do  so." 

"  Then  I  will  wait  three  or  four  years,"  Jeanne 
answered  quietly.  "  I  have  no  idea  of  marrying 
the  Count  de  Brensault." 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES    221 

The  Princess  raised  herself  a  little  on  her 
couch. 

"  Child,"  she  said,  "  you  would  try  any  one's 
patience.  Only  a  month  or  so  ago  you  told  me 
that  you  were  quite  indifferent  as  to  whom  you 
might  marry.  You  were  content  to  allow  me  to 
select  some  one  suitable." 

"  A  few  months,"  Jeanne  answered,  "  are  some- 
times a  very  long  time.  My  views  have  changed 
since  then." 

"  You  mean,"  the  Princess  said,  "  that  you  have 
met  some  one  whom  you  wish  to  marry?  ' 

"  Perhaps  so,"  Jeanne  answered.  "  At  any  rate 
I  will  not  marry  the  Count  de  Brensault." 

The  Princess'  face  had  darkened. 

"  I  do  not  wish  to  quarrel  with  you,  Jeanne," 
she  said,  "  but  I  think  that  you  will.  Whom  else 
is  it  that  you  are  thinking  of?  Is  it  our  island 
fisherman  who  has  taken  your  fancy?" 

"  Does  that  matter?  "  Jeanne  answered  calmly. 
"  Is  it  not  sufficient  if  I  say  that  I  will  not  marry 
the  Count  de  Brensault." 

"  No,  it  is  not  quite  sufficient,"  the  Princess 
remarked  coldly.  "  You  will  cither  marry  the  man 
whom  I  have  chosen,  or  give  me  some  definite  and 
clear  reason  for  your  refusal." 

"  One  very  definite  and  clear  reason,"  Jeanne 
remarked,  "  is  that  I  do  not  like  the  Count  de 


222     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

Brensault.  I  think  that  he  is  a  noisy,  forward, 
and  offensive  young  man." 

"  His  income  is  nearly  fifty  thousand  a  year," 
the  Princess  remarked,  "  so  he  must  be  forgiven 
a  few  eccentricities  of  manner." 

"  His  income,"  Jeanne  said,  "  scarcely  matters, 
does  it?  If  my  money  is  ever  to  do  anything  for 
me,  it  should  at  least  enable  me  to  choose  a  hus- 
band for  myself." 

"  That's  where  you  girls  always  make  such  ab- 
surd mistakes,"  the  Princess  remarked.  "  You  get 
an  idea  or  a  liking  into  your  mind,  and  you  hold 
on  to  it  like  wax.  You  forget  that  the  times  may 
change,  new  people  may  come,  the  old  order  of 
things  may  pass  altogether  away.  Suppose,  for 
instance,  you  were  to  lose  your  money?  " 

"  I  should  not  be  sorry,"  Jeanne  answered 
calmly.  "  I  should  at  least  be  sure  that  I  was  not 
any  longer  an  article  of  merchandise.  I  could  lead 
my  own  life,  and  marry  whom  I  pleased." 

The  Princess  laughed  scornfully. 

"  Men  do  not  take  to  themselves  penniless  brides 
nowadays,"  she  remarked. 

"  Some  men  —  "  Jeanne  began. 

The  Princess  interrupted  her. 

11  Bah !  "  she  said.  "  You  are  thinking  of  your 
island  fisherman  again.  I  see  by  the  papers  that 
he  has  gone  away.    He  is  very  wise.    He  may  be 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     223 

a  very  excellent  person,  but  the  whole  world  could 
not  held  a  less  suitable  husband  for  you." 

Jeanne  smiled. 

"  Well,"  she  said,  "  we  shall  see.  I  certainly  do 
not  think  that  he  will  ever  ask  me  to  marry  him. 
He  is  one  of  those  whom  my  gold  does  not  seem 
to  attract." 

"  He  is  clumsy,"  the  Princess  remarked.  "  A 
word  of  encouragement  would  have  brought  him 
to  your  feet." 

"  If  I  had  thought  so,"  Jeanne  remarked,  "  I 
would  have  spoken  it." 

The  Princess  looked  across  at  her  stepdaughter 
searchingly. 

"  Tell  me  the  truth,  Jeanne,"  she  said.  "  Have 
you  been  idiot  enough  to  really  care  for  this 
man?" 

"  That,"  Jeanne  answered,  "  is  a  subject  which 
I  cannot  discuss  with  any  one,  not  even  you." 

"  It  is  all  very  well,"  the  Princess  answered, 
"  but  whatever  happens,  I  must  see  that  you  do 
not  make  an  idiot  of  yourself.  It  is  very  impor- 
tant indeed,  for  more  reasons  than  you  know 
of." 

Jeanne  looked  up. 

"  Such  as  —  ?  "  she  asked. 

The  Princess  hesitated.  There  were  two  evils 
before  her.     It  was  not  possible  to  escape  from 


224     JEANNE    OF.   THE    MARSHES 

both.     She  found  herself  weighing  the  chances  of 
each  of  them,  their  nearness  to  disaster. 

"  Well,"  she  said,  "  great  fortunes  even  like 
yours  are  not  above  the  chances  of  the  money- 
markets.  Your  fortune,  or  a  great  part  of  it, 
might  go.  What  would  happen  to  you  then?  You 
would  be  a  pauper." 

Jeanne  smiled. 

"  I  can  see  nothing  terrifying  in  that,"  she  an- 
swered, "  but  at  the  same  time  I  do  not  think  that 
a  fortune  such  as  mine  is  a  very  fluctuating  af- 
fair." 

"  You  are  right,  of  course,"  the  Princess  said. 
"  You  will  be  one  of  the  richest  young  women  in 
the  country.  There  is  nothing  to  prevent  it.  It 
is  a  good  thing  that  you  have  me  to  look  after 
you." 

Jeanne  leaned  a  little  forward  in  her  chair,  and 
looked  steadfastly  at  her  stepmother. 

"  I  suppose,"  she  said,  "  that  you  are  right. 
You  know  the  world,  at  any  rate,  and  you  are 
clever.  But  often  you  puzzle  me.  Why  at  first 
»did  you  want  me  to  marry  Major  Forrest?  " 

The  Princess'  face  seemed  suddenly  to  harden. 

"  I  never  wished  you  to,"  she  said  coldly. 
"  However,  we  will  not  talk  about  that.  For  cer- 
tain reasons  I  think  that  it  would  be  well  for  you 
to  be  married  before  you  actually  come  of  age. 


JEANNE    OF    THE    MARSHES     225 

That  is  why  I  have  invited  the  Count  de  Brensault 
here  to-night." 

Jeanne's  dark  eyes  were  fixed  curiously  upon  the 
Princess. 

"  Sometimes,"  she  said,  "  I  do  not  altogether 
understand  you.  Why  should  there  be  all  this 
nervous  haste  about  my  marriage  ?  Do  you  know 
that  it  would  trouble  me  a  great  deal  more,  only 
that  I  have  absolutely  made  up  my  mind  that  noth- 
ing will  induce  me  to  marry  any  one  whom  I  do 
not  really  care  for." 

The  Princess  raised  her  head,  and  for  a  moment 
the  woman  and  the  girl  looked  at  one  another.  It 
was  almost  a  duel  —  the  Princess'  intense,  almost 
threatening  regard,  and  Jeanne's  set  face  and 
steadfast  eyes. 

"  My  father  left  me  all  this  money,"  Jeanne 
said,  "  that  I  might  be  happy,  not  miserable.  I 
am  quite  determined  that  I  will  not  ruin  my  life 
before  it  has  commenced.  I  do  not  wish  to  marry 
at  all  for  several  years.  I  think  that  you  have 
brought  me  into  what  you  call  Society  a  good  deal 
too  soon.  I  would  rather  study  for  a  little  time, 
and  try  and  learn  what  the  best  things  are  that  one 
may  get  out  of  life.  I  am  afraid,  from  your  point 
of  view,  that  I  am  going  to  be  a  failure.  I  do  not 
care  particularly  about  dances,  or  the  people  we 
have  met  at  them.     I  think  that  in  another  few 


226     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

weeks  I  shall  be  as  bored  as  the  most  fashionable 
person  in  London." 

A  servant  knocked  at  the  door  announcing  Ma- 
jor Forrest.  Jeanne  rose  to  her  feet  and  passed  out 
by  another  door.  The  Princess  made  no  attempt 
to  stop  her. 


CHAPTER   IV 

The  Princess  looked  up  with  ill-concealed  eager- 
ness as  Forrest  entered. 

"  Well,"  she  asked,  "  have  you  any  news?  " 

Forrest  shook  his  head. 

"  None,"  he  answered.  "  I  am  up  for  the  day 
only.  Cecil  will  not  let  me  stay  any  longer.  He 
was  here  himself  the  day  before  yesterday.  We 
take  it  by  turns  to  come  away." 

"  And  there  is  nothing  to  tell  me?  "  the  Princess 
asked.    "  No  change  of  any  sort?  ' 

"  None,"  Forrest  answered.  "  It  is  no  good 
attempting  to  persuade  ourselves  that  there  is 
any." 

"  What  are  you  up  for,  then?  "  she  asked. 

He  laughed  hardly. 

"  I  am  like  a  diver,"  he  answered,  "  who  has  to 
come  to  the  surface  every  now  and  then  for  fresh 
air.  Life  down  at  Salthouse  is  very  nearly  the 
acme  of  stagnation.  Our  only  excitement  day  by 
day  is  the  danger  —  and  the  hope." 


228     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

"Is  Cecil  getting  braver?'  the  Princess 
asked. 

"  I  think  that  he  is,  a  little,"  Forrest  answered. 

The  Princess  nodded. 

"  We  met  him  at  the  Bellamy  Smiths',"  she  said. 
"  It  was  quite  a  reunion.  Andrew  was  there,  and 
the  Duke." 

Forrest's  face  darkened. 

"  Meddling  fool,"  he  muttered.  "  Do  you 
know  that  there  are  two  detectives  now  in  Salt- 
house?  They  come  and  go  and  ask  all  manner 
of  questions.  One  of  them  pretends  that  he  be- 
lieves Engleton  was  drowned,  and  walks  always 
on  the  beach  and  hires  boatmen  to  explore  the 
creeks.  The  other  sits  in  the  inn  and  bribes  the 
servants  with  drinks  to  talk.  But  don't  let's  talk 
about  this  any  longer.     How  is  Jeanne?  ' 

"  We  are  going,"  the  Princess  said  quietly,  "  to 
have  trouble  with  that  child." 

"  Why?  "  Forrest  asked. 

"  She  Is  developing  a  conscience,"  the  Princess 
remarked.  "  Where  she  got  it  from,  Heaven 
knows.  It  wasn't  from  her  father.  I  can  answer 
for  that." 

"  Anything  else?  "  Forrest  asked. 

"  It  is  a  curious  thing,"  the  Princess  replied, 
"  but  ever  since  those  few  days  down  at  that  tum- 
bledown old  place  of  Cecil  de  la  Borne's,  she  seems 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     229 

to  have  developed  in  a  remarkable  manner.  I 
don't  know  how  much  nonsense  she  talked  with 
that  fisherman  of  hers,  but  some  of  it,  at  any  rate, 
seems  to  have  stuck.  I  am  sure,"  she  added,  with 
a  little  sigh,  "  that  we  are  going  to  have  trouble." 

Forrest  smiled  grimly. 

"  So  far  as  I'm  concerned,"  he  remarked,  "  the 
trouble  has  arrived.  I've  a  good  mind  to  chuck 
it  altogether." 

The  Princess  looked  up.  Worn  though  her  face 
was,  she  possessed  one  feature,  her  eyes,  which 
still  entitled  her  to  be  called  a  beautiful  woman. 
She  looked  at  Forrest  steadily,  and  he  felt  himself 
growing  uncomfortable  before  the  contempt  of  her 
steady  regard. 

"  I  wonder  how  it  is,"  she  said  pensively,  "  that 
all  men  are  more  or  less  cowards.  You  shield 
yourselves  by  speaking  of  an  attack  of  nerves.  It 
is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  cowardice." 

"  I  believe  you  are  right,"  Forrest  assented. 
"  I'm  not  the  man  I  was." 

"  You  are  not,"  the  Princess  agreed.  "  It  is 
well  for  you  that  you  have  had  me  to  look  after 
you,  or  you  would  have  gone  to  pieces  altogether. 
You  talk  of  giving  up  cards  and  retiring  to  the 
Continent.  My  dear  man,  what  do  you  propose 
to  live  on  ?  " 

He  did  not  answer.    He  had  bullied  this  woman 


230     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

for  a  good  many  years.  Now  he  felt  that  the 
tables  were  being  turned  upon  him. 

"  What  has  become  of  the  De  la  Borne  money?  " 
she  asked.  "  I  never  thought  that  you  would  get 
it,  but  he  paid  up  every  cent,  didn't  he?  " 

Forrest  nodded. 

"  He  did,"  he  admitted,  "  or  rather  his  brother 
did  for  him.  I  lost  four  hundred  at  Goodwood, 
and  there  were  some  of  my  creditors  I  simply  had 
to  give  a  little  to,  or  they  would  have  pulled  me 
up  altogether.  You  talk  about  nerves,  Ena,  but, 
hang  it  all,  it's  enough  to  give  anyone  the  hum 
to  lead  the  sort  of  life  I've  had  to  lead  for  the 
last  few  years.  I'm  nothing  more  nor  less  than  a 
common  adventurer." 

"  Whatever  you  are,"  the  Princess  answered 
steadily,  "  you  are  too  old  to  change  your  life  or 
the  manner  of  it.  One  can  start  again  afresh  on 
the  other  side  of  forty,  but  at  fifty  the  thing  is 
hopeless.     Fortunately  you  have  me." 

"  You !  "  he  repeated  bitterly.  "  You  mean  that 
I  can  dip  into  your  purse  for  pocket-money  when 
you  happen  to  have  any.  I  have  done  too  much 
of  it.  You  forget  that  there  is  one  way  into  a 
new  world,  at  any  rate." 

The  Princess  smiled. 

"  My  dear  Nigel,"  she  said,  "  it  is  a  way  which 
you  will  never  take.     Don't  think  I  mean  to  be 


JEANNE    OF    THE    MARSHES     231 

unkind  when  I  say  that  you  have  not  the  courage. 
However,  we  will  not  talk  about  that.  I  sent  for 
you  to  tell  you  that  De  Brensault  is  really  in  ear- 
nest about  Jeanne.  He  is  dining  here  to-night.  I 
will  get  some  other  people  and  we  will  have  bridge. 
De  Brensault  is  conceited,  and  a  bad  player,  and 
what  is  most  important  of  all,  he  can  afford  to 
lose." 

Forrest  began  to  look  a  little  less  gloomy. 

"  You  were  fortunate,"  he  remarked,  "  to  get 
hold  of  De  Brensault.  There  are  not  many  of  his 
sort  about.  I  am  afraid,  though,  that  he  will  not 
make  much  of  an  impression  upon  Jeanne." 

The  Princess'  face  hardened. 

"  If  Jeanne  is  going  to  be  obstinate,"  she  said, 
"  she  must  suffer  for  it.  De  Brensault  is  just  the 
man  I  have  been  looking  for.  He  wants  a  young 
wife,  and  although  he  is  rich,  he  is  greedy.  He 
is  the  sort  of  person  I  can  talk  to.  In  fact  I  have 
already  given  him  a  hint." 

Forrest  nodded  understandingly. 

"  But,  Ena,"  he  said,  "  if  he  really  does  shell 
out,  won't  you  be  sailing  rather  close  to  the 
wind?" 

She  shrugged  her  shoulders. 

"  I  am  not  afraid,"  she  said.  "  I  know  De 
Brensault  and  his  sort.  If  he  feels  that  he  has 
been  duped,  he  will  keep  it  to  himself.     He  is  too 


232     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

vain  a  man  to  allow  the  world  to  know  it.  Poor 
Jeanne !  I  am  afraid,  I  am  very  much  afraid  that 
he  will  take  it  out  of  her." 

"  I  do  not  quite  see,"  Forrest  said  reflectively, 
"  how  you  are  going  to  make  Jeanne  marry  any 
one,  especially  in  this  country." 

"  Jeanne  is  French,  not  English,"  the  Princess 
remarked,  "  and  she  is  not  of  age.  A  mother  has 
considerable  authority  legally,  as  I  dare  say  you  are 
aware.  We  may  not  be  able  to  manage  it  in  Eng- 
land, but  I  think  I  can  guarantee  that  if  De  Bren- 
sault  doesn't  disappoint  us,  the  wedding  will  take 
place." 

Forrest  helped  himself  to  a  cigarette  from  an 
open  box  by  his  side. 

"  I  think,"  he  said,  "  that  if  it  comes  off  we 
ought  to  go  to  the  States  for  a  year  or  so.  They 
don't  know  us  so  well  there,  and  those  people  are 
the  easiest  duped  of  any  in  the  world." 

The  Princess  nodded. 

"  I  have  thought  of  that,"  she  remarked. 
"  There  are  only  one  or  two  little  things  against 
it.  However,  we  will  see.  You  had  better  go  now. 
I  have  some  callers  coming  and  must  make  myself 
respectable." 

She  gave  him  her  hands  and  he  raised  them  to 
his  lips.  Her  eyes  followed  him  as  he  turned  away 
and  left  the  room.     For  a  few  moments  she  wras 


JEANNE    OF    THE    MARSHES     233 

thoughtful.     Then   she   shrugged   her   shoulders. 

"  Well,"  she  said,  "  all  things  must  come  to  an 
end,  I  suppose." 

She  rang  the  bell  and  sent  for  Jeanne.     It  was 
ten  minutes,  however,  before  she  appeared. 

'What  have  you   been  doing?"   the   Princess 
asked  with  a  frown. 

"  Finishing    some    letters,"    Jeanne    answered 
calmly.    "  Did  you  want  me  particularly?  " 

"To  whom  were  you  writing?"   the   Princess 
demanded. 

"  To    Monsieur    Laplanche    for    one    person," 
Jeanne  answered  calmly. 

The  Princess  raised  her  eyebrows. 

"  And  what  had  you,"  she  asked,  "  to  say  to 
Monsieur  Laplanche?  " 

'  I  have  written  to  ask  him  a  few  particulars 
concerning  my  fortune,"  Jeanne  answered. 

'Such  as?"  the  Princess  inquired  steadily. 
I  want  to  know,"  Jeanne  said,  "  at  what  age 
it  becomes  my  own,  and  how  much  it  amounts  to. 
It  seems  to  me  that  I  have  a  right  to  know  these 
things,  and  as  you  will  not  tell  me,  I  have  written 
to  Monsieur  Laplanche." 

The  Princess  held  out  her  hand. 

"  Give  me  the  letter,"  she  said. 

Jeanne  made  no  motion  to  obey. 

"  Do  you  object  to  my  writing?  "  she  asked. 


234     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

"  I  object,"  the  Princess  said,  "  to  your  writing 
anybody  on  any  subject  without  my  permission, 
and  so  far  as  regards  the  information  you  have 
asked  for  from  Monsieur  Laplanche,  I  will  tell 
you  all  that  you  want  to  know." 

"  I  prefer,"  Jeanne  said  steadily,  "  to  hear  it 
from  Monsieur  Laplanche  himself.  There  are 
times  when  you  say  things  which  I  do  not  under- 
stand. I  have  quite  made  up  my  mind  that  I  will 
have  things  made  plain  to  me  by  my  trustee." 

The  Princess  was  outwardly  calm,  but  her  eyes 
were  like  steel. 

"  You  are  a  foolish  child,"  she  said.  "  I  am 
your  guardian.  You  have  nothing  whatever  to  do 
with  your  trustees.  They  exist  to  help  me,  not 
you.  Everything  that  you  wish  to  know  you  must 
learn  from  me.  It  is  not  until  you  are  of  age  that 
any  measure  of  control  passes  from  me.  Give  me 
that  letter." 

Jeanne  hesitated  for  a  moment.  Then  she 
turned  toward  the  door. 

"  No !  "  she  said.    "  I  am  going  to  post  it." 

The  Princess  rose  from  her  chair,  and  crossing 
the  room  locked  the  door. 

"  Jeanne,"  she  said,  "  come  here." 

The  girl  hesitated.  In  the  end  she  obeyed.  The 
Princess  reached  out  her  hand  and  struck  her  on 
the  cheek. 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     235 


<< 


Give  me  that  letter,"  she  commanded. 

Jeanne  shrank  back.  The  suddenness  of  the 
blow,  its  indignity,  and  these  new  relations  which 
it  seemed  designed  to  indicate,  bewildered  her. 
She  stood  passive  while  the  Princess  took  the  letter 
from  her  fingers  and  tore  it  into  pieces.  Then  she 
unlocked  the  door. 

"  Go  to  your  room,  Jeanne,"  she  ordered. 

Jeanne  heard  the  sound  of  people  ascending  the 
stairs,  and  this  time  she  did  not  hesitate.  The 
Princess  drew  a  little  breath  and  looked  at  the 
fragments  of  the  letter  in  the  grate.  It  was  vic- 
tory of  a  sort,  but  she  realized  very  well  that  the 
ultimate  issue  was  more  doubtful  than  ever.  In 
her  room  Jeanne  would  have  time  for  reflection. 
If  she  chose  she  might  easily  decide  upon  the  one 
step  which  would  be  irretrievable. 


CHAPTER    V 

The  Count  de  Brensault  was  a  small  man,  with 
a  large  pale  face.  There  were  puffy  little  bags 
under  his  eyes,  from  which  the  colour  had  de- 
parted. His  hair,  though  skilfully  arranged,  was 
very  thin  at  the  top,  and  his  figure  had  the  lumpi- 
ness  of  the  man  who  has  never  known  any  sort  of 
athletic  training.  He  looked  a  dozen  years  older 
than  his  age,  which  was  in  reality  thirty-five,  and 
for  the  last  ten  years  he  had  been  a  constant  though 
cautious  devotee  of  every  form  of  dissipation. 
Jeanne,  who  sat  by  his  side  at  dinner-time,  found 
herself  looking  at  him  more  than  once  in  a  sort 
of  fascinated  wonder.  Was  it  really  possible  that 
any  one  could  believe  her  capable  of  marrying  such 
a  creature !  There  were  eight  people  at  dinner, 
in  none  of  whom  she  was  in  the  least  interested. 
The  Count  de  Brensault  talked  a  good  deal,  and 
very  loudly.  He  spoke  of  his  horses  and  his  dogs 
and  his  motor  cars,  but  he  omitted  to  sav  that  he 
had  ceased  to  ride  his  horses,  and  that  he  never 
drove  his  motor  car.     Jeanne  listened  to  him  in 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     237 

quiet  contempt,  and  the  Princess  fidgetted  in  her 
chair.  The  man  ought  to  know  that  this  was  not 
the  way  to  impress  a  child  fresh  from  boarding- 
school  ! 

"  You  seem,"  Jeanne  remarked,  after  listening 
to  him  almost  in  silence  for  a  long  time,  "  to  give 
most  of  your  time  to  sports.    Do  you  play  polo?  ' 

He  shook  his  head. 

"  I  am  too  heavy,"  he  said,  "  and  the  game,  it 
is  a  little  dangerous." 

"  Do  you  hunt?  "  she  asked. 

"  No!  "  he  admitted.  "  In  Belgium  we  do  not 
hunt." 

"  Do  you  race  with  your  motor  cars?  ' 

11  I  entered  one,"  he  answered,  "  for  the  Prix 
des  Ardennes.  It  was  the  third.  My  driver,  he 
was  not  very  clever." 

"You  did  not  drive  it  yourself,  then?'  she 
asked. 

He  laughed  in  a  superior  manner. 

"  I  do  not  wish,"  he  said,  "  to  have  a  broken 
neck.  There  are  so  many  things  in  life  which  I 
\  still  find  very  pleasant." 

He  smiled  at  her  in  a  knowing  manner,  and 
Jeanne  looked  away  to  hide  her  disgust. 

"  Your  interest  in  sport,"  she  remarked,  "  seems 
to  be  a  sort  of  second-hand  one,  does  it  not?  ' 

"  I  do  not  know  that,"  he  answered.     "  I  do 


238     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

not  know  quite  what  you  mean.  At  Ostend  last 
year  I  won  the  great  sweepstakes." 

"  For  shooting  pigeons?  "  she  asked. 

"  So !  "  he  admitted,  with  content. 

She  smiled. 

"  I  see  that  I  must  beg  your  pardon,"  she  said. 
"  Have  you  ever  done  any  big  game  shooting?  " 

He  shook  his  head. 

"  I  do  not  like  to  travel  very  much,"  he  an- 
swered. "  I  do  not  like  the  cooking,  and  I  think 
that  my  tastes  are  what  you  would  call  very  civ- 
ilized." 

The  Princess  intervened.  She  felt  that  it  was 
necessary  at  any  cost  to  do  so. 

"  The  Count,"  she  told  Jeanne,  "  has  just  been 
elected  a  member  of  the  Four-in-Hand  Club  here. 
If  we  are  very  nice  to  him  he  will  take  us  out  in 
his  coach." 

"  As  soon,"  De  Brensault  interposed  hastily, 
"  as  I  have  found  another  team  not  quite  so  what 
you  call  spirited.  My  black  horses  are  very  beauti- 
ful, but  I  do  not  like  to  drive  them.  They  pull 
very  hard,  and  they  always  try  to  run  away." 

The  Princess  sighed.  The  man,  after  all,  was 
really  a  little  hopeless.  She  saw  clearly  that  it 
was  useless  to  try  and  impress  Jeanne.  The  affair 
must  take  its  course.  Afterwards  in  the  drawing- 
room  the  Count  came  and  sat  by  Jeanne's  side. 


JEANNE    OF    THE    MARSHES     239 

11  Always,"  he  declared,  "  in  England  it  is 
bridge.  One  dines  with  one's  friends,  and  one 
would  like  to  talk  for  a  little  time,  and  it  is  bridge. 
It  must  be  very  dull  for  you  little  girls  who  are 
not  old  enough  to  play.  There  is  no  one  left  to 
talk  to  you." 

Jeanne  smiled. 

"  Perhaps,"  she  said,  "  I  am  an  exception. 
There  are  very  few  people  whom  I  care  to  have 
talk  to  me." 

She  looked  him  in  the  eyes,  but  he  was  unfor- 
tunately a  very  spoilt  young  man,  and  he  only 
stroked  the  waxed  tip  of  a  scanty  moustache. 

"  I  am  very  glad  to  hear  you  say  so,  mademoi- 
selle," he  said.  "  That  makes  it  the  more  pleasant 
that  your  excellent  mother  gives  me  one  quarter  of 
an  hour's  respite  from  bridge  that  we  may  have 
a  little  conversation.  Have  you  ever  been  in  my 
country,  Miss  Le  Mesurier?" 

"  I  have  only  travelled  through  it,"  Jeanne  an- 
swered; "  but  I  am  afraid  that  you  did  not  under- 
stand what  I  meant  just  now.  I  said  that  there 
were  very  few  people  with  whom  I  cared  to  talk. 
You  are  not  one  of  those  few,  Monsieur  le  Comte." 

He  looked  at  her  with  a  half-open  mouth.  His 
eyes  were  suddenly  like  beads. 

"  I  do  not  understand,"  he  said. 

"  I  am  afraid,"  Jeanne  answered,  with  a  sigh, 


240     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

"  that  you  are  very  unintelligent.  What  I  meant 
to  say  was  that  I  do  not  like  to  sit  here  and  talk 
with  you.  It  wearies  me,  because  you  do  not  say 
anything  that  interests  me,  and  I  should  very  much 
rather  read  my  book." 

The  Count  de  Brensault  wTas  nonplussed.  He 
looked  at  Jeanne,  and  he  looked  vaguely  across 
the  room  at  the  Princess,  as  though  wondering 
whether  he  ought  to  appeal  to  her. 

"  Have  I  offended  you?  "  he  asked.  "  Perhaps 
I  have  said  something  that  you  do  not  like.  I  am 
sorry." 

"  No,  it  is  not  that  at  all,"  Jeanne  answered 
sweetly.  "  It  is  simply  that  I  do  not  like  you.  You 
must  not  mind  if  I  tell  you  the  truth.  You  see 
I  have  only  just  come  from  boarding-school,  and 
there  we  were  always  taught  to  be  quite  truthful." 

De  Brensault  stared  at  her  again.  This  was  the 
most  extraordinary  young  woman  whom  he  had 
ever  met  in  his  life.  Had  not  the  Princess  only 
an  hour  ago  told  him  that  although  he  might 
find  her  a  little  difficult  at  first,  she  was  neverthe- 
less prepared  to  receive  his  advances.  He  had 
imagined  himself  dazzling  her  a  little  with  his  title 
and  possessions,  gracefully  throwing  the  handker- 
chief at  her  feet,  and  giving  her  that  slight  share 
in  his  life  and  affection  which  his  somewhat  con- 
tinental ideas  of  domesticity  suggested.     Had  she 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     241 

really  meant  to  be  rude  to  him,  or  was  she  nervous  ? 
He  looked  at  her  once  more,  still  with  that  unin- 
telligent stare.  Jeanne  was  perfectly  composed, 
with  her  pale  cheeks  and  large  serious  eyes.  She 
was  obviously  speaking  the  truth.  Then  as  he 
looked  the  expression  in  his  eyes  changed.  She 
was  gradually  becoming  desirable,  not  only  on  ac- 
count of  her  youth  and  dowry  —  there  were  other 
things.  He  felt  a  sudden  desire  to  kiss  those  very 
shapely,  somewhat  full  lips,  which  had  just  told 
him  so  calmly  that  their  owner  disliked  him.  Al- 
ready he  was  telling  himself  in  his  mind  that  some 
day,  when  she  was  his  altogether,  for  a  plaything 
or  what  he  chose  to  make  of  her,  he  would  remind 
her  of  this  evening. 

"  I  am  sorry,"  he  said,  "  that  you  do  not  like 
me,  but  that  is  because  you  are  not  used  to  men. 
Presently  you  will  know  me  better,  and  then  I  am 
sure  it  will  be  different.  As  for  you,"  he  contin- 
ued, looking  at  her  in  a  manner  which  he  felt 
should  certainly  awaken  some  different  feeling  in 
her  inexperienced  heart,  "  I  admire  you  very  much 
indeed.  I  have  seen  you  only  once  or  twice,  but 
I  have  thought  of  you  much.  Some  day  I  hope 
that  we  shall  be  very  much  better  friends." 

He  leaned  a  little  toward  her,  and  Jeanne  calmly 
removed  herself  a  little  further  away.  She  turned 
her  head  now  to  look  at  him,  as  she  sat  upright 


242     JEANNE    OF   THE   MARSHES 

upon  the  sofa,  very  slim  and  graceful  in  her  white 
gown. 

"  I  do  not  think  so,"  she  said.  "  I  do  not  care 
about  being  friendly  with  people  whom  I  dislike, 
and  I  am  beginning  to  dislike  you  very  much  in- 
deed because  you  will  not  go  away  when  I  ask 
you." 

He  rose  to  his  feet  a  little  offended. 

11  Very  well,"  he  said,  "  I  will  go  and  talk  to 
your  stepmother,  who  wants  me  to  play  bridge, 
but  very  soon  I  shall  come  back,  and  before  long 
I  think  that  I  am  going  to  make  you  like  me  very 
much." 

He  crossed  the  room,  and  Jeanne's  eyes  followed 
his  awkward  gait  with  a  sudden  flash  of  quiet 
amusement.  She  watched  him  talk  to  her  step- 
mother, and  she  saw  the  Princess'  face  darken. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  De  Brensault  felt  that  he  had 
some  just  cause  for  complaint. 

"  Dear  Princess,"  he  said,  "  you  did  not  tell  me 
that  she  was  so  very  farouche,  so  very  shy  indeed. 
I  speak  to  her  quite  kindly,  and  she  tells  me  that 
she  does  not  like  me,  and  that  she  wished  me  to 
go  away." 

The  Princess  looked  across  the  room  towards 
Jeanne,  who  was  calmly  reading,  and  apparently 
oblivious  of  everything  that  was  passing. 

My  dear  Count,"  she  said,  tapping  his  hand 


<< 


JEANNE    OF    THE    MARSHES     243 

with  her  fan,  "  she  is  very,  very  serious.  She 
would  like  to  have  been  a  nun,  but  of  course  we 
would  not  hear  of  it.  I  think  that  she  was  a  little 
afraid  of  you.  You  looked  at  her  very  boldly,  you 
know,  and  she  is  not  used  to  the  glances  of  men. 
At  her  age,  perhaps  —  you  understand?  ' 

The  Count  was  not  quite  sure  that  he  did  under- 
stand. He  had  a  most  unpleasant  recollection  of 
the  firmness  and  decision  with  which  Jeanne  had 
announced  her  views  with  regard  to  him,  but  he 
looked  towards  her  again  and  the  look  was  fatal. 
Jeanne  was  certainly  a  most  desirable  young  pef- 
son,  quite  apart  from  her  dowry. 

"  It  may  be  as  you  say,  Princess,"  he  said.  "  I 
must  leave  her  to  you  for  a  little  time.  You  must 
talk  to  her.  She  is  quite  pretty,"  he  added  with 
an  involuntary  note  of  condescension  in  his  tone. 
"  I  am  very  pleased  with  her.  In  fact  I  am  quite 
attracted." 

"  You  will  remember,"  the  Princess  said,  drop- 
ping her  voice  a  little,  "  that  before  anything  defi- 
nite is  said,  you  and  I  must  have  a  little  conver- 
sation." 

De  Brensault  twirled  his  moustache.  He  looked 
up  at  the  Princess  as  though  trying  to  fathom  the 
meaning  of  her  words. 

"  Certainly,"  he  answered  slowly.     "  I  have  not 


244     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

forgotten  what  you  said.  Of  course,  her  dot  is 
very  large,  is  it  not?  " 

"  It  is  very  large  indeed,"  the  Princess  answered, 
"  and  there  are  a  great  many  young  men  who 
would  be  very  grateful  to  me  indeed  if  I  were 
willing  even  to  listen  to  them." 

De  Brensault  nodded. 

"  Very  well,"  he  said.  "  We  will  have  that 
little  talk  whenever  you  like." 

The  Princess  nodded. 

"  I  suppose,"  she  said,  "  we  must  play  bridge 
now.    They  are  waiting  for  us." 

De  Brensault  looked  behind  to  where  Jeanne 
was  still  sitting  reading.  Her  head  was  resting 
upon  a  sofa  pillow,  deep  orange  coloured,  against 
which  the  purity  of  her  complexion,  the  delicate 
lines  of  her  eyebrows,  the  shapeliness  of  her  ex- 
quisite mouth,  were  all  more  than  ever  manifest. 
She  read  with  interest,  and  without  turning  her 
head  away  from  the  pages  of  the  book  which  she 
held  in  long,  slender  fingers.  De  Brensault  sighed 
as  he  turned  away. 

"  Certainly,"  he  said.  "  We  will  go  and  play 
bridge.  But  I  will  tell  you  what  it  is,  my  dear 
Princess.  I  think  I  am  very  near  falling  in  love 
with  your  little  stepdaughter." 


CHAPTER    VI 

Forrest  crossed  the  room  and  waited  his  oppor- 
tunity until  the  Princess  was  alone. 

"  Let  me  take  you  somewhere,"  he  said.  "  I 
want  to  talk  to  you." 

She  laid  her  fingers  upon  his  arm,  and  they 
walked  slowly  away  from  the  crowded  part  of  the 
ballroom. 

"  So  you  are  up  again,"  she  remarked  looking 
at  him  curiously.    "  Does  that  mean  —  ?  " 

"  It  means  nothing,  worse  luck,"  he  answered, 
"  except  that  I  have  twenty-four  hours'  leave.  I 
am  off  back  again  at  eight  o'clock  to-morrow  morn- 
ing. Tell  me  about  this"  De  Brensault  affair. 
How  is  it  going  on?  " 

"  Well  enough  on  his  side,"  she  answered. 
"  The  amusing  part  of  it  is  that  the  more  Jeanne 
snubs  him,  the  keener  he  gets.  He  sends  roses  and 
chocolates  every  day,  and  positively  haunts  the 
house.     I  never  was  so  tired  of  any  one." 

"  Make  him  your  son-in-law  quickly,"  he  said 
grimly.     "  You'll  see  little  enough  of  him  then." 

"  I'm  not  sure,"  the  Princess  said  reflectively, 


246     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

"  whether  it  is  quite  wise  to  hurry  Jeanne  so 
much." 

"  Wise  or  not,"  Forrest  said,  "  it  must  be  done. 
Even  supposing  the  other  affair  comes  out  all  right, 
London  is  getting  impossible  for  me.  I  don't 
know  who's  at  the  bottom  of  it,  but  people  have 
stopped  sending  me  invitations,  and  even  at  my 
pothouse  of  a  club  the  men  seem  to  have  as  little 
to  say  to  me  as  possible.  Some  one's  at  work 
spreading  reports  of  some  sort  or  another.  I  am 
not  over  sensitive,  but  the  thing's  becoming  an 
impossibility." 

"  Do  you  suppose,"  she  asked  quietly,  "  that  it 
is  the  Engleton  affair?  " 

He  nodded. 

"  People  are  saying  all  sorts  of  things,"  he  an- 
swered. "  I'd  go  abroad  to-morrow  and  leave  De 
la  Borne  to  look  out  for  himself,  but  I  haven't 
even  the  money  to  pay  my  railway  fare." 

The  Princess  shrugged  her  shoulders  express- 
ively. 

"Oh,  I'm  not  begging!"  he  continued.  "I 
know  you're  pretty  well  in  the  same  box." 

"  That,"  the  Princess  remarked,  "  scarcely  ex- 
presses it.  I  am  a  great  deal  worse  off  than  you, 
because  I  have  a  houseful  of  unpaid  servants,  and 
a  mob  of  tradespeople,  who  are  just  beginning  to 
clamour.     I  see  that  you  are  looking  at  my  neck- 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     247 

lace,"  she  continued.  "  I  can  assure  you  that  I 
have  not  a  single  real  stone  left.  Everything  I 
possess  that  isn't  in  pawn  is  of  paste." 

"  Then  don't  you  see,  Ena,"  he  said,  "  that  this 
thing  really  must  be  hurried  forward?  De  Bren- 
sault  is  ready  enough,  isn't  he?  " 

"  Quite,"  she  answered. 

"  And  he  understands  the  position?  " 

"  I  think  so,"  the  Princess  answered.  "  I  have 
given  him  to  understand  it  pretty  clearly." 

"  Then  have  a  clear  business  talk  with  him," 
Forrest  said,  "  and  then  have  it  out  with  Jeanne. 
You  could  all  go  abroad  together,  and  they  could 
be  married  at  the  Embassy,  say  at  Paris." 

'  Jeanne  is  the  only  difficulty,"  the  Princess  said. 
"  It  would  suit  me  better,  for  upon  my  word  I 
don't  know  where  I  could  get  credit  for  her  trous- 
seau." 


u 


It  isn't  any  use  waiting,"  Forrest  said.  "  I 
have  watched  them  together,  and  I  am  sure  of  it. 
De  Brensault  isn't  one  of  those  fellows  who  im- 
prove upon  acquaintance.  Look,  there  they  are. 
Nothing  very  lover-like  about  that,  is  there?  " 

De  Brensault  and  Jeanne  were  crossing  the  room 
together.  Only  the  very  tips  of  her  fingers  rested 
upon  his  coat-sleeve,  and  there  was  a  marked  aloof- 
ness about  her  walk  and  the  carriage  of  her  head. 
He   was   saying  something   to   her  to   which   she 


248     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

seemed  to  be  paying  the  scantiest  of  attention. 
Her  head  was  thrown  back,  and  in  her  eyes  was 
a  great  weariness.  Suddenly,  just  as  they  reached 
the  entrance,  they  saw  her  whole  expression  change. 
A  wave  of  colour  flooded  her  cheeks.  Her  eyes 
were  suddenly  filled  with  life.  They  saw  her  lips 
part.  Her  hands  were  outstretched  to  greet  the 
man  who,  crossing  the  room,  had  stopped  at  her 
summons.  Both  the  Princess  and  Forrest  frowned 
when  they  saw  who  it  was.  It  was  Andrew  de  la 
Borne. 

"That  infernal  fisherman!"  Forrest  muttered. 
"  I  saw  in  the  paper  that  he  had  returned  this 
afternoon  from  The  Hague." 

The  Princess  made  an  involuntary  movement 
forward,  but  Forrest  checked  her. 

"  You  can  do  no  good,"  he  said.  '  Wait  and 
see  what  happens." 

What  did  happen  was  very  simple,  and  for  the 
Count  de  Brensault  a  little  humiliating.  Jeanne 
passed  her  arm  through  the  newcomer's  arid  with 
the  curtest  of  nods  to  her  late  companion,  disap- 
peared through  an  open  doorway.  The  Belgian 
stood  looking  after  them,  twirling  his  moustache 
with  shaking  fingers.  His  face  was  paler  even  than 
usual,  and  he  was  shaking  with  anger. 

"  Leave  him  alone  for  a  few  minutes,"  Forrest 
said  to  the  Princess.     "  You  will  do  no  good  at  all 


THE     BELGIAN     STOOD     LOOKING    AFTER    THEM,    TWIRLING     HIS 
MOUSTACHE    WITH    SHAKING    FINGERS. 


JEANNE    OF   THE   MARSHES     249 

by  speaking  to  him  just  now.  Ena,  it  is  absolutely 
necessary  that  you  make  Jeanne  understand  the 
state  of  affairs." 

"  I  think,"  the  Princess  said  thoughtfully,  "  that 
it  will  be  best  to  take  her  away  from  London. 
Lately  I  have  noticed  a  development  in  Jeanne 
which  I  do  not  altogether  understand.  She  has 
begun  to  think  for  herself  most  unpleasantly.  She 
plays  at  being  a  child  with  De  Brensault,  but  that 
is  simply  because  it  is  the  easiest  way  to  repulse 
him." 

Meanwhile  Jeanne,  whose  face  was  transfigured, 
and  whose  whole  manner  was  changed,  was  sitting 
with  her  companion  in  the  quietest  corner  they 
could  find. 

"  It  is  delightful  to  see  you  again,"  she  said 
frankly.  "  I  do  not  think  that  any  one  ever  felt  so 
lonely  as  I  do." 

He  smiled. 

"  T  can  assure  you  that  I  find  it  delightful  to  be 
back  again,"  he  said,  "  although  I  have  enjoyed 
my  work  very  much.  By  the  by,  who  introduced 
you  to  the  man  whom  you  were  with  when  I  found 
you?" 

"  My  stepmother,"  she  answered.  "  He  is  the 
man,  by  the  by,  whom  I  am  told  I  am  to  marry." 

Andrew  looked  as  he  felt  for  a  moment,  shocked. 

"  I  am  sorry  to  hear  that,"  he  said  quietly. 


250     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

"  You  need  not  be  afraid,"  she  answered.  "  I 
am  not  of  age,  and  I  was  brought  up  in  a  country 
where  one's  guardians  have  a  good  deal  of  author- 
ity, but  nothing  in  the  world  would  ever  induce  Hie 
to  marry  a  creature  like  that." 

His  face  cleared  somewhat. 

"  I  am  very  surprised,"  he  said,  "  that  your 
stepmother  should  have  thought  of  it.  He  is  an 
unfit  companion  for  any  self-respecting  woman." 

"  I  do  not  understand,"  Jeanne  said  quietly, 
"  why  they  are  so  anxious  that  I  should  marry 
quickly,  but  I  know  that  my  stepmother  thinks  of 
nothing  else  in  connection  with  me.  Look !  They 
are  coming  through  the  conservatories.  Let  us  go 
out  by  the  other  door." 

They  came  face  to  face  with  a  tall,  grave-looking 
man,  who  wore  an  order  around  his  neck.  Andrew 
stopped  suddenly. 

"  I  should  like,"  he  said  to  Jeanne,  "  to  intro- 
duce you  to  my  friend.  You  have  met  him  before 
down  at  the  Red  Hall,  and  on  the  island,  but  that 
scarcely  counts.  Westerham,  this  is  Miss  Le  Me- 
surier.  You  remember  that  you  saw  her  at  Salt- 
house." 

The  Duke  shook  hands  with  the  girl,  looking  at 
her  attentively.  His  manner  was  kind,  but  his  eyes 
seemed  to  be  questioning  her  all  the  time. 

"  I  am  very  glad  to  know  you,  Miss  Le  Mesu- 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     251 

rier,"    he   said.      "  My   friend   Andrew   here   has 
spoken  of  you  to  me." 

They  remained  talking  together  for  some  min- 
utes, until,  in  fact,  Forrest  and  the  Princess,  who 
were  in  pursuit  of  them,  appeared.  The  Princess 
looked  curiously  at  the  Duke,  and  Forrest  frowned 
heavily  when  he  recognized  him.  There  was  a 
moment's  almost  embarrassed  silence.  Then  An- 
drew did  what  seemed  to  him  to  be  the  reasonable 
thing. 

"  Princess,"  he  said,  "  will  you  allow  me  to  pre- 
sent my  friend  the  Duke  of  Westerham.  The 
Duke  was  staying  with  me  a  few  weeks  ago,  as 
you  know,  and  at  that  time  he  had  a  particular 
reason  for  not  wishing  his  whereabouts  to  be 
known." 

The  Duke  bowed  over  the  Princess'  hand,  which 
was  offered  him  at  once,  and  without  hesitation, 
but  his  greeting  to  Forrest  was  markedly  cold. 
Forrest  had  evidently  lost  his  nerve.  He  seemed 
tongue-tied,  and  he  was  very  pale.  It  was  the 
Princess  alone  who  saved  the  situation  from  be- 
coming an  exceedingly  embarrassing  one. 

"  I  have  heard  of  you  very  often,  Duke,"  she 
said.  Your  brother,  Lord  Ronald,  took  us  down 
to  Norfolk,  you  know.  By  the  by,  have  you  heard 
from  him  yet?  " 

Not  yet,  madam,"  the  Duke  said,  "  but  I  can 


(< 


v 


252     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

assure  you  that  it  is  only  a  matter  of  time  before 
I  shall  discover  his  whereabouts.  I  wonder 
whether  your  ward  will  do  me  the  honour  of  giv- 
ing me  this  dance?'  he  added,  turning  to  her. 
"  I  am  afraid  I  am  not  a  very  skilful  performer, 
but  perhaps  she  will  have  a  little  consideration  for 
one  who  is  willing  to  do  his  best." 

He  led  Jeanne  away  from  them,  and  Andrew, 
after  a  moment's  stereotyped  conversation,  also 
departed.    The  Princess  and  Forrest  were  alone. 

"  This  is  getting  worse  and  worse,"  Forrest  mut- 
tered. "  He  is  suspicious.  I  am  sure  that  he  is. 
They  say  that  young  Engleton  was  his  favourite 
brother,  and  that  he  is  determined  —  " 

"Hush!"  the  Princess  said.  "There  are  too 
many  people  about  to  talk  of  these  things.  I 
wonder  why  the  Duke  took  Jeanne  off." 

"  An  excuse  for  getting  away  from  us,"  Forrest 
said.  "  Did  you  see  the  way  he  looked  at  me? 
Ena,  I  cannot  hang  on  like  this  any  longer.  I  must 
have  a  few  thousand  pounds  and  get  away." 

The  Princess  nodded. 

"  We  will  go  and  talk  to  De  Brensault,"  she 
said.  "  I  should  think  he  would  be  just  in  the 
frame  of  mind  to  consent  to  anything." 

•  •  •  •  ••••'• 

The  Duke,  who  was  well  acquainted  with  the 
house    in    which    they    were,    led    Jeanne    into    a 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     253 

small  retiring  room  and  found  her  an  easy  chair. 

'  My  dear  young  lady,"  he  said,  "  I  hope  you 
will  not  be  disappointed,  but  I  have  not  danced  for 
ten  years.  I  brought  you  here  because  I  wanted 
to  say  something  to  you." 

Jeanne  looked  up  at  him  a  little  surprised. 

'  Something  to  me?  "  she  repeated. 
He  bowed. 

'  Andrew  de  la  Borne  is  one  of  my  oldest  and 
best  friends,"  he  said,  "  and  what  I  am  going  to 
say  to  you  is  a  little  for  his  sake,  although  I  am 
sure  that  if  I  knew  you  better  I  should  say  it  also 
for  your  own.  You  must  not  be  annoyed  or  of- 
fended, because  I  am  old  enough  to  be  your  father, 
and  what  I  say  I  say  altogether  for  your  own  good. 
They  tell  me  that  you  are  a  young  lady  with  a 
great  fortune,  and  you  know  that  nowadays  half 
the  evil  that  is  done  in  the  world  is  done  for  the 
sake  of  money.  Frankly,  without  wishing  to  say 
a  word  against  your  stepmother,  I  consider  that 
for  a  young  girl  you  are  placed  in  a  very  difficult 
and  dangerous  position.  The  man  Forrest  — 
mind  you  must  not  be  offended  if  he  should  be  a 
friend  of  yours  —  but  I  am  bound  to  tell  you  that 
I  believe  him  to  be  an  unscrupulous  adventurer, 
and  I  am  afraid  that  your  stepmother  is  very  much 
under  his  influence.  You  have  no  other  relatives 
or  friends  in  this  country,  and  I  hear  that  a  man 


254     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

named  De  Brensault  is  a  suitor  for  your  hand." 

"  I  shall  never  marry  him,"  Jeanne  said  firmly. 
11  I  think  that  he  is  detestable." 

"  I  am  glad  to  hear  you  say  so,"  the  Duke  con- 
tinued, "  because  he  is  not  a  man  whom  I  would 
allow  any  young  lady  for  whom  I  had  any  shade 
of  respect  or  affection,  to  become  acquainted  with. 
Now  the  fact  that  your  stepmother  deliberately 
encourages  him  makes  me  fear  that  you  may  find 
yourself  at  any  moment  in  a  very  difficult  position. 
I  do  not  wish  to  say  anything  against  your  friends 
or  your  stepmother.  I  hope  you  will  believe  that. 
But  nowadays  people  who  are  poor  themselves, 
but  who  know  the  value  and  the  use  of  money,  are 
tempted  to  do  things  for  the  sake  of  it  which  are 
utterly  unworthy  and  wrong.  I  want  you  to  under- 
stand that  if  any  time  you  should  need  a  friend 
it  will  give  me  very  great  happiness  indeed  to 
be  of  any  service  to  you  I  can.  I  am  a  bachelor, 
it  is  true,  but  I  am  old  enough  to  be  your  father, 
and  I  can  bring  you  into  touch  at  once  with  friends 
more  suitable  for  you  and  your  station.  Will  you 
come  to  me,  or  send  for  me,  if  you  find  yourself 
in  any  sort  of  trouble?  " 

She  said  very  little,  but  she  looked  at  him  for  a 
moment  with  her  wonderful  eyes,  very  soft  with 
unshed  tears. 

"  You  are  very,  very  kind,"  she  said.     "  I  have 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     255 

been  very  unhappy,  and  I  have  felt  very  lonely. 
It  will  make  everything  seem  quite  different  to 
know  there  is  some  one  to  whom  I  may  come  for 
advice  if  —  if  —  " 

"  I  know,  dear,"  the  Duke  interrupted,  rising 
and  holding  out  his  arm.  "  I  know  quite  well 
what  you  mean.  All  I  can  say  is,  don't  be  afraid 
to  come  or  to  send,  and  don't  let  any  one  bully  you 
into  throwing  away  your  life  upon  a  scoundrel  like 
De  Brensault.  I  am  going  to  give  you  back  to 
Andrew  now.  He  is  a  good  fellow  —  one  of  the 
best.     I  only  wish  —  " 

The  Duke  broke  off  short.  After  all,  he  remem- 
bered, he  had  no  right  to  complete  his  sentence. 
Andrew,  he  felt,  was  no  more  of  a  marrying  man 
than  he  himself,  and  he  was  the  last  person  in  the 
world  to  ever  think  of  marrying  a  great  heiress. 
They  found  him  waiting  about  outside. 

"  I  must  relinquish  my  charge,"  the  Duke  said 
smiling.     "  You  will  not  forget,  Miss  Le  Mesu- 


ner 


?" 


I  am  never  likely  to,"  she  answered  gratefully. 


CHAPTER   VII 

The  Count  de  Brensault  had  seldom  been  in  a 
worse  temper.  That  Jeanne  should  have  flouted 
him  was  not  in  itself  so  terrible,  because  he  had 
quite  made  up  his  mind  that  sooner  or  later  he 
would  take  a  coward's  revenge  for  the  slights  he 
had  been  made  to  endure  at  her  hands.  But  that 
he  should  have  been  flouted  in  the  presence  of  a 
whole  roomful  of  people,  that  he  should  have  been 
deliberately  left  for  another  man,  was  a  different 
matter  altogether.  His  first  impulse  when  Jeanne 
left  him,  was  to  walk  out  of  the  house  and  have 
nothing  more  to  say  to  the  Princess  or  Jeanne  her- 
self. The  world  was  full  of  girls  perfectly  willing 
to  tumble  into  his  arms,  and  mothers  only  too 
anxious  to  push  them  there.  Why  should  he  put 
himself  in  this  position  for  Jeanne,  great  heiress 
though  she  might  be?  But  somehow  or  other, 
after  he  had  tossed  off  two  glasses  of  champagne 
at  the  buffet,  he  realized  that  his  fancy  for  her 
was  a  real  thing,  and  one  from  which  he  could  not 
so  readily  escape.  If  she  had  wished  to  delib- 
erately attract  him,  she  could  scarcely  have  chosen 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     257 

means  more  calculated  to  attain  that  end  than  by 
this  avowed  indifference,  even  dislike.  He  sat  by 
himself  in  a  small  smoking-room  and  thought  of 
her  —  her  slim  girlish  perfection  of  figure  and 
bearing,  her  perfect  complexion,  her  beautiful  eyes, 
her  scarlet  lips.  All  these  things  came  into  his 
mind  as  he  sat  there,  until  he  felt  his  cheeks  flush 
with  the  desire  to  succeed,  and  his  eyes  grow  bright 
at  the  thought  of  the  time  when  he  should  hold 
her  in  his  arms  and  take  what  revenge  he  chose 
for  these  slights.  No !  he  would  not  let  her  go, 
he  determined.  Dignified  or  undignified,  he  would 
pursue  her  to  the  end,  only  he  must  have  an  under- 
standing with  the  Princess,  something  definite  must 
be  done.  He  would  not  run  the  risk  again  of  being 
made  a  laughing-stock  before  all  his  friends.  For- 
rest found  him  in  exactly  the  mood  most  suitable 
for  his  purpose. 

"  Come  and  talk  to  the  Princess,"  he  said. 
"  She  has  something  to  say  to  you." 

De  Brensault  rose  somewhat  heavily  to  his  feet. 

"  And  I,"  he  said,  "  I,  too,  have  something  to 
say  to  her.  We  will  take  a  glass  of  champagne 
together,  my  friend  Forrest,  and  then  we  will  seek 
the  Princess." 

Forrest  nodded. 

11  By  all  means,"  he  said.  "  To  .tell  you  the 
truth  I  need  it." 


258     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

De  Brensault  looked  at  him  curiously. 

"  You  are  very  pale,  my  friend,"  he  said.  "  You 
look  as  though  things  were  not  going  too  well  with 
you." 

"  I  have  been  annoyed,"  Forrest  answered. 
"  There  is  a  man  here  whom  I  dislike,  and  it  made 
me  angry  to  see  him  with  Miss  Jeanne.  I  think 
myself  that  the  time  has  come  when  something 
definite  must  be  done  as  regards  that  child.  She 
is  too  young  to  be  allowed  to  run  loose  like  this, 
and  a  great  deal  too  inexperienced." 

"  I  agree  with  you,"  De  Brensault  said  solemnly. 
"  We  will  drink  that  glass  of  wine  together,  and 
we  will  go  and  talk  to  the  Princess." 

They  found  the  Princess  where  Forrest  had  left 
her.  She  motioned  to  De  Brensault  to  sit  by  her 
side,  and  Forrest  left  them. 

"  My  dear  Count,"  the  Princess  said,  "  to-night 
has  proved  to  me  that  it  is  quite  time  Jeanne  had 
some  one  to  look  after  her.  Let  me  ask  you.  Are 
you  perfectly  serious  in  your  suit?  " 

"Absolutely!"  De  Brensault  answered  eagerly. 
"  I  myself  would  like  the  matter  settled.  I  pro- 
pose to  you  for  her  hand." 

The  Princess  bowed  her  head  thoughtfully. 

"  Now,  my  dear  Count,"  she  said,  "  I  am 
going  to  talk  to  you  as  a  woman  of  the  world. 
You  know  that  my  husband,  in  leaving  his  fortune 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES    259 

entirely  to  Jeanne,  treated  me  very  badly.  You 
may  know  this,  or  you  may  not  know  it,  but  the 
fact  remains  that  I  am  a  very  poor  woman." 

De  Brensault  nodded  sympathetically.  He 
guessed  pretty  well  what  was  coming. 

"  If  I,"  the  Princess  continued,  "  assist  you  to 
gain  my  stepdaughter  Jeanne  for  your  wife,  and 
the  control  of  all  her  fortune,  it  is  only  fair,"  she 
continued,  "  that  I  should  be  recompensed  in  some 
way  for  the  allowance  which  I  have  been  receiving 
as  her  guardian,  and  which  will  then  come  to  an 
end.  I  do  not  ask  for  anything  impossible  or  un- 
reasonable. I  want  you  to  give  me  twenty  thou- 
sand pounds  the  day  that  you  marry  Jeanne.  It 
is  about  one  year's  income  for  her  rentes,  a  mere 
trifle  to  you,  of  course." 

"  Twenty  thousand  pounds,"  De  Brensault  re- 
peated reflectively. 

The  Princess  nodded.  She  was  sorry  that  she 
had  not  asked  thirty  thousand. 

"  I  am  not  a  mercenary  woman,"  she  said.  "  If 
I  were  not  almost  a  pauper  I  would  accept  nothing. 
As  it  is,  I  think  you  will  call  my  proposal  a  very 
fair  one." 

"  The  exact  amount  of  Mademoiselle  Jeanne's 
dot,"  he  remarked,  "  has  never  been  discussed 
between  us." 

"  The  figures  are  altogether  beyond  me,"   the 


260     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

Princess  said.  "  To  tell  you  the  truth  I  have  never 
had  the  heart  to  go  into  them.  I  have  always 
thought  it  terribly  unfair  that  my  husband  should 
have  left  me  nothing  but  an  annuity,  and  this  great 
fortune  to  the  child.  However,  as  you  are  both 
rich,  it  seems  to  me  that  settlements  will  not  be 
necessary.  On  your  honeymoon  you  can  go  and  see 
her  trustees  in  Paris,  and  you  yourself  will,  of 
course,  then  take  over  the  management  of  her  for- 
tune." 

De  Brensault  looked  thoughtful  for  a  moment 
or  two. 

"  Perhaps,"  he  said,  "  it  would  be  better  if  I  had 
a  business  interview  with  her  trustees  before  the 
ceremony." 

"  Just  as  you  like,"  the  Princess  answered  care- 
lessly. "  Monsieur  Laplanche  is  in  Cairo  just  now, 
but  he  will  be  back  in  Paris  in  a  few  weeks'  time. 
Perhaps  you  would  rather  delay  everything  until 
then?" 

"  No !  "  De  Brensault  said,  after  a  moment's 
hesitation.  "  I  would  like  to  delay  nothing.  I 
would  like  to  marry  Mademoiselle  Jeanne  at  once, 
if  it  can  be  arranged." 

"  To  tell  you  the  truth,"  the  Princess  said,  "  I 
think  it  would  be  much  the  best  way  out  of  a  very 
difficult  situation.  I  am  finding  Jeanne  very  dif- 
ficult to  manage,  and  I  am  quite  sure  that  she  will 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES    261 

be  happier  and  better  off  married.  I  am  propo- 
sing, if  you  are  willing,  to  exercise  my  authority 
absolutely.  If  she  shows  the  slightest  reluctance 
to  accept  you,  I  propose  that  we  all  go  over  to 
Paris.    I  shall  know  how  to  arrange  things  there." 

De  Brensault  smiled.  The  prospect  of  winning 
Jeanne  at  any  cost  became  more  and  more  attract- 
ive to  him.  The  Princess,  who  was  looking  at  him 
through  half  closed  eyes,  saw  that  he  was  perfectly 
safe. 

"  And  now,  my  dear  Count,"  she  said,  "  I  am 
going  to  ask  you  a  favour.  I  am  doing  for  you 
something  for  which  you  ought  to  be  grateful  to 
me  all  your  life.  For  a  mere  trifle  which  will  not 
recompense  me  in  the  least  for  what  I  am  giving 
up,  I  am  finding  you  one  of  the  most  desirable 
brides  in  Europe.     I  want  you  to  help  me  a  little." 

"  What  is  it  that  I  can  do?  "  he  asked. 

"  Let  me  have  five  thousand  pounds  on  account 
of  what  you  are  going  to  give  me,  to-morrow  morn- 
ing," she  said  coolly. 

De  Brensault  hesitated.  He  was  prepared  ta 
pay  for  what  he  wanted,  but  five  thousand  pounds, 
was  nevertheless  a  great  deal  of  money. 

"  I  would  not  ask  you,"  the  Princess  continued,. 
"  if  I  were  not  really  hard  up.  I  have  been  gam- 
bling, a  foolish  thing  to  do,  and  I  do  not  want  to 
sell  my  securities,  because  I  know  that  very  soon 


262     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

they  will  pay  me  over  and  over  again.  Will  you 
do  this  for  me?  Remember,  I  am  giving  you  my 
word  that  Jeanne  is  to  be  yours." 

"  Make  it  three  thousand,"  De  Brensault  said 
slowly.  "  Three  thousand  pounds  I  will  send  you 
a  cheque  for,  to-morrow  morning." 

The  Princess  nodded. 

"  As  you  will,"  she  said.  "  I  think  if  I  were 
you,  though,  I  should  make  it  five.  However,  I 
shall  leave  it  for  you  to  do  what  you  can.  Now 
will  you  take  me  out  into  the  ballroom.  I  am  go- 
ing to  look  for  Jeanne." 

They  found  her  at  supper  with  the  Duke  and 
Andrew  and  a  very  great  lady,  a  connection  of  the 
Duke's,  who  was  one  of  those  few  who  had  refused 
to  accept  the  Princess.  The  Princess  swept  up  to 
the  little  party  and  laid  her  hand  upon  Jeanne's 
shoulder. 

"  I  do  not  want  to  hurry  you,  dear,"  she  said, 
'  but  when  you  have  finished  supper  I  should  be 
glad  to  go.  We  have  to  go  on  to  Dorchester 
House,  you  know." 

Jeanne  sighed.  She  had  been  enjoying  herself 
very  much  indeed. 

"  I  am  ready  now,"  she  said,  standing  up,  "  but 
must  we  go  to  Dorchester  House?  I  would  so 
much  rather  go  straight  home.  I  have  not  had 
such  a  good  time  since  I  have  been  in  London." 

The  Duke  offered  her  his  arm,  ignoring  alto- 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES    263 
gether   Count   De   Brensault,   who   was   standing 

by. 

"  At  least,"  he  said,  "  you  will  permit  me  to  see 
you  to  your  carriage." 

The  Princess  smiled  graciously.  It  was  bad 
enough  to  be  ignored,  as  she  certainly  was  to  some 
extent,  but  on  the  other  hand  it  was  good  for  De 
Brensault  to  see  Jeanne  held  in  such  esteem.  She 
took  his  arm  and  they  followed  down  the  room. 
The  Duke  was  bending  down  and  talking  ear- 
nestly to  Jeanne ;   this  suprised  the  Princess. 

"  I  wonder,"  she  remarked,  more  to  herself  than 
to  her  companion,  "  what  he  is  saying." 

De  Brensault  shrugged  his  shoulders. 

"  I  do  not  care,"  he  said.  "  We  will  keep  to 
our  bargain,  you  and  I.  In  a  few  days  it  will  be 
my  arm  that  she  shall  take,  and  nobody  else's. 
Perhaps  I  shall  be  a  little  jealous.  Who  can  say? 
In  a  little  time  she  will  not  mind." 

"  Remember,"  the  Duke  was  saying,  as  he  drew 
Jeanne's  hand  through  his  arm,  "  that  I  was  very 
much  in  earnest  in  what  I  said  to  you  just  now. 
I  have  seen  a  good  deal  of  the  world,  and  you 
nothing  at  all,  and  I  cannot  help  believing  that 
the  time  when  you  may  need  some  one's  help  is  a 
good  deal  nearer  than  you  yourself  imagine." 

"  I  wonder,"  she  asked,  a  little  timidly,  "  why 
you  are  so  kind  to  me  ?  " 

I  accept  you  upon  trust,"  the  Duke  said,  "  for 


(C 


264     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

the  sake  of  my  friend  Andrew.  I  know  that  he 
lives  out  of  the  world,  and  has  not  much  experi- 
ence in  judging  others,  but  I  do  believe  that  when 
he  has  made  up  his  mind  about  anybody,  he  is 
generally  right.  Frankly,  from  what  I  have  heard, 
and  a  little  that  I  know,  I  am  afraid  that  I  should 
have  been  suspicious  about  even  a  child  like  you, 
because  of  your  associates.  But  because  I  believe 
in  you,  I  am  all  the  more  sure  that  very  soon  you 
are  going  to  find  yourself  in  trouble.  It  is  agreed, 
remember,  that  when  that  time  comes  you  will 
remember  that  I  am  your  friend." 

"  I  will  remember^"  she  murmured.  "  I  am  not 
likely  to  forget.  Except  for  you  and  Mr.  De  la 
Borne,  no  one  has  been  really  kind  to  me  since  I 
left  school.  They  all  say  foolish  things,  and  try 
to  make  me  like  them,  because  I  am  a  great  heir- 
ess, but  one  understands  how  much  that  is  worth." 

The  Duke  looked  at  her,  and  seemed  half  in- 
clined to  say  something.  Whatever  it  may  have 
been,  however,  he  thought  better  of  it.  He  con- 
tented himself  with  taking  her  hand  in  his  and 
shaking  it  warmly. 

"  Good  night,"  he  said,  "  little  Miss  Jeanne,  and 
remember,  No.  51,  Grosvenor  Square.  If  I  am 
not  there,  I  have  a  very  nice  old  housekeeper  who 
will  look  after  you  until  I  turn  up." 

"No.  51,"  she  repeated  softly.  "No,  I  shall 
not  forget !  " 


CHAPTER   VIII 

The  Princess  and  Jeanne  drove  homewards  in 
a  silence  which  remained  unbroken  until  the  last 
few  minutes.  The  events  of  the  evening  had  been 
somewhat  perplexing  to  the  former.  She  scarcely 
understood  even  now  why  a  great  personage  like 
the  Duke  of  Westerham  had  shown  such  interest 
in  her  charge. 

"  Tell  me,  Jeanne,"  she  asked  at  last,  "  why  is 
the  Duke  of  Westerham  so  friendly  with  your 
fisherman?  " 

Jeanne  raised  her  eyebrows  slightly. 

"  '  My  fisherman,'  as  you  call  him,"  she  an- 
swered, "  is,  after  all,  Andrew  de  la  Borne !  They 
were  at  school  together." 

"  That  is  all  very  well,"  the  Princess  answered, 
"  but  I  cannot  see  what  possible  sympathy  there 
can  be  between  them  now.  Their  stations  in  life 
are  altogether  different.  You  talked  with  the 
Duke  for  some  time,  Jeanne?  " 

"  He  was  very  kind  to  me,"  Jeanne  answered. 

"  Did  he  give  you  any  idea,"  the  Princess  asked, 
"  as  to  why  he  was  staying  down  at  Salthouse  with 
Mr.  Andrew?" 


266     JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES 

"  None  at  all,"  Jeanne  answered. 

"  You  know  very  well,"  the  Princess  continued, 
"  of  what  I  am  thinking.  Did  he  speak  to  you  at 
all  of  Major  Forrest?  " 

"  Not  a  word,"  Jeanne  answered. 

"Of  his  brother,  then?" 

"  He  did  not  mention  his  name,"  Jeanne  de- 
clared. 

"  He  asked  you  no  questions  at  all  about  any- 
thing which  may  have  happened  at  the  Red 
Hall?" 

Jeanne  shook  her  head. 

"  Certainly  not !  " 

11  You  do  not  think,  then,"  the  Princess  per- 
sisted, "  that  it  was  for  the  sake  of  gaining  infor- 
mation about  his  brother  that  he  talked  with  you 
so  much?  " 

"  Why  should  I  think  so  ?  "  Jeanne  asked.  "  He 
scarcely  mentioned  any  of  your  names  even.  He 
talked  to  me  simply  out  of  kindness,  and  I  think 
because  he  knew  that  Mr.  Andrew  and  I  were 
friends." 

The  Princess  smiled. 

"  You  seem,"  she  remarked,  "  to  have  made 
quite  a  conquest.  I  congratulate  you.  The  Duke 
has  not  the  reputation  of  being  an  easy  man  to  get 
on  with." 

The  carriage  pulled  up  before  their  house  *n 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     267 

Berkeley  Square,  and  the  Princess  did  not  pursue 
the  subject,  but  as  Jeanne  left  her  for  the  night, 
her  stepmother  called  her  back. 

"  To-morrow  morning,"  she  said,  "  I  should  be 
glad  if  you  would  come  to  my  room  at  twelve 
o'clock.     I  have  something  to  say  to  you." 


Jeanne  slept  well  that  night.  For  the  first  time 
she  felt  that  she  had  lost  the  feeling  of  friendless- 
ness  which  for  the  last  few  weeks  had  constantly 
oppressed  her.  Andrew  de  la  Borne  was  back  in 
London,  and  the  Duke,  who  seemed  to  have  some 
sort  of  understanding  as  to  the  troubles  which  were 
likely  to  beset  her,  had  gone  out  of  his  way  to  offer 
her  his  help.  She  felt  now  that  she  would  not 
have  to  fight  her  stepmother's  influence  unaided. 
Yet  when  she  sought  her  room  at  twelve  o'clock 
the  next  morning  she  had  very  little  idea  of  the 
sort  of  fight  which  she  might  indeed  have  to  make. 

The  Princess  had  already  spent  an  hour  at  her 
toilette.  Her  hair  was  carefully  arranged  and  her 
face  massaged.  She  received  her  stepdaughter 
with  some  show  of  affection,  and  bade  her  sit  close 
to  her. 

1  Jeanne,"  she  saicf,  "  you  are  now  nearly  twenty 
years  old.  For  many  reasons  I  wish  to  see  you 
married.     The  Count  de  Brensault  formally  pro- 


268    JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

posed  for  you  last  night.     He  is  coming  at  three 
o'clock  this  afternoon  for  his  answer." 

Jeanne  sat  upright  in  her  chair.  Her  step- 
mother noticed  a  new  air  of  determination  in  the 
poise  of  her  head,  and  the  firm  lines  of  her  mouth. 

11  The  Count  might  have  spared  himself  the 
trouble,"  she  said.  "  He  knows  very  well  what 
my  answer  will  be.  I  think  that  you  know,  too. 
It  is  no,  most  emphatically  and  decidedly !  I  will 
not  marry  the  Count  de  Brensault." 

"  Before  you  express  yourself  so  irrevocably," 
the  Princess  said  calmly,  "  I  should  like  you  to 
understand  that  it  is  my  wish  that  you  accept  his 
offer." 

"  In  all  ordinary  matters,"  Jeanne  answered, 
"  I  am  prepared  to  obey  you.  In  this,  no !  I 
think  that  I  have  the  right  to  choose  my  husband 
for  myself,  or  at  any  rate  to  approve  of  whomever 
you  may  select.  I  do  not  approve  of  the  Count 
de  Brensault.  I  do  not  care  for  him,  and  I  never 
could  care  for  him,  and  I  will  not  marry  him !  " 

The  Princess  said  nothing  for  several  moments. 
Then  she  moved  toward  the  door  which  led  into 
her  sleeping  chamber,  where  her  maid  was  still 
busy,  and  turned  the  key  in  the  lock. 

"  Jeanne,"  she  said  when  she  returned,  "  I  think 
it  is  time  that  you  were  told  something  which  I 
am  afraid  will  be  a  shock  to  you.    This  great  for- 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     269 

tune  of  yours,  of  which  you  have  heard  so  much, 
and  which  has  been  so  much  talked  about,  is  a 
myth." 

"What  do  you  mean?"  Jeanne  asked,  looking 
at  her  stepmother  with  startled  eyes. 

"  Exactly  what  I  say,"  the  Princess  continued. 
"  Your  father  made  huge  gifts  to  his  relatives  dur- 
ing the  last  few  years  of  his  life,  and  he  left  enor- 
mous sums  in  charity.  To  you  he  left  the  remain- 
der of  his  estate,  which  all  the  world  believed  to 
amount  to  at  least  a  million  pounds.  But  when 
things  came  to  be  realized,  all  his  securities  seemed 
to  have  depreciated.  The  legacies  were  paid  in 
cash.  The  depreciation  of  his  fortune  all  fell  upon 
you.  When  everything  had  been  paid,  there  was 
something  like  twenty-five  thousand  pounds  left. 
More  than  half  of  that  has  gone  in  your  educa- 
tion, and  in  an  allowance  to  myself  since  I  have 
had  the  charge  of  you.  There  is  a  little  left  in  the 
hands  of  Monsieur  Laplanche,  but  very  little  in- 
deed. What  there  is  we  owe  for  your  dresses,  the 
rent  of  this  house,  and  other  things." 

"  You  mean,"  Jeanne  interrupted  bewildered, 
"  that  I  have  no  money  at  all?  " 

"  Practically  none,"  the  Princess  answered. 
"  Now  you  can  see  why  it  is  so  important  that 
you  should  marry7  a  rich  man." 

Jeanne  was  bewildered.     It  was  hard  to  grasp 


270     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

these  things  which  her  stepmother  was  telling  her. 

"  If  this  be  true,"  she  said,  "  how  is  it  that 
every  one  speaks  of  me  as  being  a  great  heiress?  ' 

The  Princess  glanced  at  her  with  a  contemptu- 
ous smile. 

"  You  do  not  suppose,"  she  said,  "  that  I  have 
found  it  necessary  to  take  the  whole  world  into 
my  confidence." 

"  You  mean,"  Jeanne  said,  "  that  people  don't 
know  that  I  am  not  a  great  heiress?  ' 

"  Certainly  not,"  the  Princess  replied,  "  or  we 
should  scarcely  be  here." 

"  The  Count  de  Brensault?  "  Jeanne  asked. 

"  He  does  not  know,  of  course,"  the  Princess 
answered.  "  He  is  a  rich  man.  He  can  afford 
quite  well  to  marry  a  girl  without  a  dot." 

Jeanne's  head  fell  slowly  between  her  hands. 
The  suddenness  of  this  blow  had  staggered  her.  It 
was  not  the  loss  of  her  fortune  so  much  which 
affected  her  as  the  other  contingencies  with  which 
she  was  surrounded.  She  tried  to  think,  and  the 
more  she  thought  the  more  involved  it  all  seemed. 
She  looked  up  at  last. 

"  If  my  fortune  is  really  gone,"  she  said,  "  why 
do  you  let  people  talk  about  it,  and  write  about 
me  in  the  papers  as  though  I  were  still  so  rich?  ' 

The  Princess  shrugged  her  shoulders. 

"  For  your  own  sake,"  she  answered.     "  It  is 


«« 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     271 

necessary  to  find  you  a  husband,  is  it  not,  and  now' 
adays  one  does  not  find  them  easily  when  there 
is  no  dot." 

Jeanne  felt  her  cheeks  burning. 
I  am  to  be  married,  then,"  she  said  slowly, 

by  some  one  who  thinks  I  have  a  great  deal  of 
money,  and  who  afterwards  will  be  able  to  turn 
round  and  reproach  me  for  having  deceived  him." 

The  Princess  laughed. 

"  Afterwards,"  she  said,  "  the  man  will  not  be 
too  anxious  to  let  the  world  know  that  he  has  been 
made  a  fool  of.  If  you  play  your  cards  properly, 
the  afterwards  will  come  out  all  right." 

Jeanne  rose  slowly  to  her  feet. 

"  I  do  not  think,"  she  said,  "  that  you  have 
quite  understood  me.  I  should  like  you  to  know 
that  nothing  would  ever  induce  me  to  marry  any 
one  unless  they  knew  the  truth.  I  will  not  go  on 
accepting  invitations  and  visiting  people's  houses, 
many  of  whom  have  only  asked  me  because  they 
think  that  I  am  very  rich.  Every  one  must  know 
the  truth  at  once." 

"  And  how,  may  I  ask,  do  you  propose  to  live  ?  " 
the  Princess  asked  quietly. 

"  If  there  is  nothing  left  at  all  of  my  money," 
Jeanne  said,  "  I  will  work.  If  it  is  the  worst  which 
comes,  I  will  go  back  to  the  convent  and  teach  the 
children." 


272    JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

The  Princess  laughed  softly. 

"  Jeanne,"  she  said,  "  you  are  talking  like  a 
positive  idiot.  It  is  because  you  have  had  no  time 
to  think  this  thing  out.  Remember  that  after 
all  you  are  not  sailing  under  any  false  colours. 
You  are  your  father's  daughter,  and  you  are  also 
his  heiress.  If  the  newspapers  and  gossip  have 
exaggerated  the  amount  of  his  fortune,  that  is  not 
your  affair.  Be  reasonable,  little  girl,"  she  added, 
letting  her  hand  fall  upon  Jeanne's.  "  Don't  give 
us  all  away  like  this.  Remember  that  I  have  made 
sacrifices  for  your  sake.  I  owe  more  money  than 
I  can  pay  for  your  dresses,  for  the  carriage,  for  the 
house  here.  Nothing  but  your  marriage  will  put 
us  straight  again.  You  must  make  up  your  mind 
to  this.  The  Count  de  Brensault  is  so  much  in 
love  with  you  that  he  will  ask  no  questions.  You 
must  marry  him." 

Jeanne  drew  herself  away  from  her  stepmother's 
touch. 

"  Nothing,"  she  said,  "  would  induce  me  to 
marry  the  Count  de  Brensault,  not  even  if  he  knew 
that  I  am  penniless.  If  we  cannot  afford  to  live 
in  this  house,  or  to  keep  carriages,  let  us  go  away 
at  once  and  take  rooms  somewhere.  I  do  not  wish 
to  live  under  false  pretences." 

The  Princess  was  very  pale,  but  her  eyes  were 
hard  and  steely. 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES    273 

"  Child,"  she  said,  "  don't  be  a  fool.  Don't 
make  me  angry,  or  I  may  say  and  do  things  for 
which  I  should  be  sorry.  It  is  no  fault  of  mine 
that  you  are  not  a  great  heiress.  I  have  done  the 
next  best  thing  for  you.  I  have  made  people  be- 
lieve that  you  are.  Be  reasonable,  and  all  will  be 
well  yet.  If  you  are  going  to  play  the  Quixote, 
it  will  be  ruin  for  all  of  us.  I  cannot  think  how 
a  child  like  you  got  such  ideas.  Remember  that  I 
am  many  years  older  and  wiser  than  you.  You 
should  leave  it  to  me  to  do  what  is  best." 

Jeanne  shook  her  head. 

"  I  cannot,"  she  said  simply.  "  I  am  sorry  to 
disappoint  you,  but  I  shall  tell  every  one  I  meet 
that  I  have  no  money,  and  I  will  not  marry  the 
Count  de  Brensault." 

The  Princess  grasped  her  by  the  wrist. 

"  You  will  not  obey  me,  child?  "  she  said. 

"  I  will  obey  ycu  in  everything  reasonable," 
Jeanne  said. 

"  Very  well,  then,"  the  Princess  answered,  "  go 
to  your  room  at  once." 

Jeanne  turned  and  walked  toward  the  door.  On 
the  threshold,  however,  she  paused.  There  were 
many  times,  she  remembered,  when  her  stepmother 
had  been  kind  to  her.  She  looked  around  at  the 
Princess,  sitting  with  her  head  resting  upon  her 
clasped  hands. 


274     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

"  I  am  very  sorry,"  Jeanne  said  timidly,  "  that 
I  cannot  do  what  you  wish.  It  is  not  honest.  Can- 
not you  see  that  it  is  not  honest?  " 

The  Princess  turned  slowly  round. 

"  Honest !  "  she  repeated  scornfully.  "  Who  is 
there  in  our  world  who  can  afford  to  be  honest? 
You  are  behaving  like  a  baby,  Jeanne.  I  only 
hope  that  before  long  you  may  come  to  your  senses. 
Will  you  obey  me  if  I  tell  you  not  to  leave  youi 
room  until  I  send  for  you?  " 

Jeanne  hesitated. 

"  Yes !  "  she  said.    "  I  will  obey  you  in  that." 

"  Then  go  there  and  wait,"  the  Princess  said. 
"  I  must  think  what  to  do." 


CHAPTER   IX 

The  Count  de  Brensault  called  in  Berkeley 
Square  at  three  o'clock  precisely  that  afternoon, 
but  it  was  the  Princess  who  received  him,  and  the 
Princess  was  alone. 

"Well?"  he  asked,  a  little  eagerly.  "Mad- 
emoiselle Jeanne  is  more  reasonable,  eh?  You 
have  good  news?  " 

The  Princess  motioned  him  to  a  seat. 

"  I  think,"  she  said,  "  we  had  forgotten  how 
young  Jeanne  really  is.  The  idea  of  getting  mar- 
ried to  any  one  seems  to  terrify  her.  After  all, 
why  should  we  wonder  at  it?  The  school  where 
she  was  brought  up  was  a  very,  very  strict  one, 
and  this  plunge  into  life  has  been  a  little  sudden." 

"  You  think,  then,"  De  Brensault  asked  eagerly, 
"  that  it  is  not  I  personally  whom  she  objects  to 
so  much?  " 

"  Certainly  not,"  the  Princess  answered.  "  It 
is  simply  you  as  the  man  whom  it  is  proposed  that 
she  should  marry  that  she  dislikes.  I  have  been 
talking   to   her   for   a   long  time   this   afternoon. 


276     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

Frankly,  I  do  not  know  which  would  be  best — ■ 
to  give  up  the  idea  of  anything  of  the  sort  for 
some  time,  or  to  —  to  —  " 

"To  what?"  De  Brensault  demanded,  as  the 
Princess  hesitated. 

"  To  take  extreme  measures,"  the  Princess  an- 
swered slowly.  "  Mind,  I  would  not  consider 
such  a  thing  for  a  moment,  if  I  were  not  fully 
convinced  that  Jeanne,  when  she  is  a  little  older, 
would  be  perfectly  satisfied  with  what  we  have 
done.  On  the  other  hand,  one  hesitates  naturally 
to  worry  the  child." 

"She  will  not  see  me?"  De  Brensault  asked. 
"  It  is  possible  that  I  might  be  able  to  persuade 
her." 

"  You  would  do  more  harm  than  good,"  the 
Princess  answered  decidedly.  "  She  is  terrified 
just  now  at  the  idea.  She  is  in  her  room  shaking 
like  a  schoolgirl  who  is  going  to  be  punished. 
Really,  I  don't  know  why  I  should  have  been 
plagued  with  such  a  charge.  There  are  so  many 
things  I  want  to  do,  and  I  have  to  stay  here  to 
look  after  Jeanne,  because  she  is  too  foolish  to  be 
trusted  with  any  one  else.  I  want  to  go  to  Amer- 
ica, and  a  very  dear  friend  of  mine  has  invited 
me  to  go  with  her  and  some  delightful  people  on 
a  yachting  cruise  around  the  world." 

"  Then  why  not  use  those  measures  you  spoke 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     277 

of?"  De  Brensault  said  eagerly.  "I  shall  make 
Jeanne  a  very  good  husband,  I  assure  you.  I  shall 
promise  you  that  in  a  fortnight's  time  she  will  be 
only  too  delighted  with  her  lot." 

The  Princess  looked  at  him  thoughtfully. 

"  I  wonder,"  she  said,  "  whether  I  could  trust 
you." 

"  Trust  me,  of  course  you  could,  dear  Princess !  " 
De  Brensault  exclaimed  eagerly.  "  I  will  be  kind 
to  her,  I  promise  you.  Be  sensible.  She  would 
feel  this  way  with  any  one.  You  yourself  have  said 
so.  There  can  be  no  more  suitable  marriage  for 
her  than  with  me.  Let  us  call  it  arranged.  Tell 
me  what  it  is  that  you  propose.  Perhaps  I  may 
be  able  to  help." 

"  Jeanne  is,  of  course,  not  of  age,"  the  Princess 
said  thoughtfully,  "  and  she  is  entirely  under  my 
control.  In  England  people  are  rather  foolish 
about  these  things,  but  abroad  they  understand 
the  situation  better." 

'Why  not  in  Belgium?"  De  Brensault  ex- 
claimed. "  We  might  go  to  a  little  town  I  know 
of  very  near  to  my  estates.  Everything  could  be 
arranged  there  very  easily.  I  am  quite  well-known, 
and  no  questions  would  be  asked." 

The  Princess  nodded  thoughtfully. 

"  That  might  do,"  she  admitted. 

"Why  not  start  at  once?"  De  Brensault  sug- 


278     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

gested.  "  There  is  nothing  to  be  gained  by  wait- 
ing.   We  might  even  leave  to-morrow." 

The  Princess  shook  her  head. 

11  You  are  too  impetuous,  my  dear  Count,"  she 
said. 

"  But  what  is  there  to  wait  for?  "  he  demanded. 

"  I  must  see  my  lawyers  first,"  she  answered 
slowly,  "  and  before  I  leave  London  I  must  pay 
some  bills." 

The  Count  drew  a  cheque  book  from  his  pocket. 

"  I  will  keep  my  word,"  he  said.  "  I  will  pay 
you  on  account  the  amount  we  spoke  of." 

The  Princess  opened  her  escritoire  briskly. 

"  There  is  a  pen  and  ink  there,"  she  said,  "  and 
blotting  paper.  Really  your  cheque  will  be  a  god- 
send to  me.  I  seem  to  have  had  nothing  but  ex- 
penses lately,  and  Jeanne's  guardians  are  as  mean 
as  they  can  be.  They  grumble  even  at  allowing 
me  five  thousand  a  year." 

De  Brensault  twirled  his  moustache  as  he  seated 
himself  at  the  table. 

"  Five  thousand  a  year,"  he  muttered.  "  It  is 
not  a  bad  allowance  for  a  young  girl  who  is  not  yet 
of  age." 

The  Princess  shrugged  her  shoulders. 

"  My  dear  Count,"  she  said,  "  you  do  not  know 
what  our  expenses  are.  Jeanne  is  extravagant,  so 
am  I  extravagant.     It  is  all  very  well  for  her,  but 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES    279 

for  me  it  is  another  matter.  I  shall  be  a  poor 
woman  when  I  have  resigned  my  charge." 

De  Brensault  handed  the  cheque  across. 

"  You  will  not  find  me,"  he  said,  "  ungrateful. 
And  now,  my  dear  lady,  let  us  talk  about  Jeanne. 
Do  you  think  that  you  could  persuade  her  to  leave 
London  so  suddenly?  " 

"  I  am  going  up-stairs  now,"  the  Princess  said, 
"  to  have  a  little  talk  with  her.  Dine  with  me  here 
to-night  quite  quietly,  and  I  will  tell  you  what  for- 
tune I  have  had." 

De  Brensault  went  away,  on  the  whole  fairly 
content  with  his  visit.  The  Princess  endorsed  his 
cheque,  and  with  a  sigh  of  relief  enclosed  it  in  an 
envelope,  rang  for  a  maid  and  ordered  her  car- 
riage. Then  she  went  up-stairs  to  Jeanne,  whom 
she  found  busy  writing  at  her  desk.  She  hesitated 
for  a  moment,  and  then  went  and  stood  with  her 
hand  resting  upon  the  girl's  shoulder. 

"  Jeanne,"  she  said,  "  I  think  that  we  have  both 
been  a  little  hasty." 

Jeanne  looked  up  in  surprise.  Her  stepmother's 
tone  was  altered.  It  was  no  longer  cold  and  dicta- 
torial. There  was  in  it  even  a  note  of  appeal. 
Jeanne  wondered  to  find  herself  so  unmoved. 

"  I  am  sorry,"  she  said,  "  if  I  have  said  any- 
thing unbecoming.  You  see,"  she  continued,  after 
a  moment's  pause,  "  the  subject  which  we  were 


280    JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

talking  about  did  not  seem  to  me  to  leave  much 
room  for  discussion." 

"  There  is  no  harm  in  discussing  anything,"  the 
Princess  said,  throwing  herself  into  a  wicker  chair 
by  the  side  of  Jeanne's  table.  "  I  am  afraid  that 
all  that  I  said  must  have  sounded  very  cruel  and 
abrupt.  You  see  I  have  had  this  thing  on  my  mind 
for  so  long.    It  has  been  a  trouble  to  me,  Jeanne." 

Jeanne  raised  her  large  eyes  and  looked  steadily 
at  her  stepmother.  She  felt  almost  ashamed  of 
her  coldness  and  lack  of  sympathy.  The  Princess 
was  certainly  looking  worn  and  worried. 

"  I  am  sorry,"  Jeanne  said  stiffly.  "  I  cannot 
imagine  how  you  could  have  supported  life  for  a 
day  under  such  conditions." 

Her  stepmother  sighed. 

"  That,"  she  said,  "  is  because  you  have  had  so 
little  experience  of  life,  and  you  do  not  understand 
its  practical  necessities.  Children  like  you  seem 
to  think  that  the  commonplace  necessaries  of  life 
drop  into  our  laps  as  a  matter  of  course,  or  that 
they  are  a  sort  of  gift  from  Heaven  to  the  deserv- 
ing. As  a  matter  of  fact,"  the  Princess  continued, 
"  nothing  of  the  sort  happens.  Life  is  often  a 
very  cruel  and  a  very  difficult  thing.  We  are  given 
tastes,  and  no  means  to  gratify  them.  How  could 
I,  for  instance,  face  life  as  a  lodging-house  keeper, 
or  at  best  as  a  sort  of  companion  to  some  ill-tem- 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     281 

pered  old  harridan,  who  would  probably  only  em- 
ploy me  to  have  some  one  to  bully?  You  yourself, 
Jeanne,  are  fond  of  luxuries." 

It  was  a  new  reflection  to  Jeanne.  She  became 
suddenly  thoughtful. 

"  I  have  noticed  your  tastes,"  the  Princess  con- 
tinued. "  You  would  be  miserable  in  anything 
but  silk  stockings,  wouldn't  you?  And  your  ideas 
of  lingerie  are  quite  in  accord  with  the  ideas  of  the 
modern  young  woman  of  wealth.  You  fill  your 
rooms  with  flowers.  You  buy  expensive  books," 
she  added,  taking  up  for  a  moment  a  volume  of 
De  Ronsard,  bound  in  green  vellum,  with  uncut 
edges.  Your  tastes  in  eating  and  drinking,  too," 
she  continued,  "  are  a  little  on  the  sybaritic  side. 
Have  you  realized  what  it  will  mean  to  give  all 
these  things  up  —  to  wear  coarse  clothes,  to  eat 
coarse  food,  to  get  your  books  from  a  cheap  li- 
brary, and  look  at  other  people's  flowers?  " 

Jeanne  frowned.  The  idea  was  certainly  not 
pleasing. 

"  It  will  be  bad  for  you,"  the  Princess  continued, 
11  and  it  will  be  very  much  worse  for  me,  because 
I  have  been  used  to  these  things  all  my  life.  You 
may  think  me  very  brutal  at  having  tried  to  help 
you  toward  the  only  means  of  escape  for  either 
of  us,  but  I  think,  dear,  you  scarcely  realize  the 
alternative.     It   is   not   only  what   you   condemn 


282     JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES 

yourself  to.  Remember  that  you  inflict  the  same 
punishment  on  me." 

"  It  is  not  I  who  do  anything,"  Jeanne  said.  "  It 
is  you  who  have  brought  this  upon  both  of  us. 
All  this  money  that  has  been  spent  upon  luxuries, 
it  was  absurd.  If  I  was  not  rich  I  did  not  need 
them.  I  think  that  it  was  more  than  absurd.  It 
was  cruel." 

The  Princess  produced  a  few  inches  of  lace-bor- 
dered cambric.  A  glance  at  Jeanne's  face  showed 
her  that  the  child  had  developed  a  new  side  to  her 
character.  There  was  something  pitiless  about 
the  straightened  mouth,  and  the  cold  questioning 
eyes. 

"  Jeanne,"  the  Princess  said,  "  you  are  a  fool. 
Some  day  you  will  understand  how  great  a  one. 
I  only  trust  that  it  may  not  be  too  late.  The  Count 
de  Brensault  may  not  be  everything  that  is  to  be 
desired  in  a  husband,  but  the  world  is  full  of  more 
attractive  people  who  would  be  glad  to  become 
your  slaves.  You  will  live  mostly  abroad,  and  let 
me  assure  you  that  marriage  there  is  the  road  to 
liberty.  You  have  it  in  your  power  to  save  your- 
self and  me  from  poverty.  Make  a  little  sacrifice, 
Jeanne,  if  indeed  it  is  a  sacrifice.  Later  on  you 
will  be  glad  of  it.  If  you  persist  in  this  unreason- 
able attitude,  I  really  do  not  know  what  will  be- 
come of  us." 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     283 

Jeanne  turned  her  head,  but  she  did  not  respond 
in  the  least  to  the  Princess'  softened  tone.  There 
was  a  note  of  finality  about  her  words,  too.  She 
spoke  as  one  who  had  weighed  this  matter  and 
made  up  her  mind. 

"  If  there  was  no  other  man  in  the  world,"  she 
said,  "  or  no  other  way  of  avoiding  starvation,  I 
would  not  marry  the  Count  de  Brensault." 

The  Princess  rose  slowly  to  her  feet. 
'  Very  well,"  she  said,  "  that  ends  the  matter, 
of  course.  I  hope  you  will  always  remember  that 
it  is  you  who  are  responsible  for  anything  that  may 
happen  now.  You  had  better,"  she  continued, 
'  leave  off  writing  letters  which  will  certainly  never 
be  posted,  and  get  your  clothes  together.  We  shall 
go  abroad  at  the  latest  to-morrow  afternoon." 

"  Abroad?  "  Jeanne  repeated. 
'  Yes ! '  the  Princess  answered.  "  I  suppose 
you  have  sense  enough  to  see  that  we  cannot  stay 
on  here  for  you  to  make  your  interesting  confes- 
sions. I  should  probably  have  some  of  these 
tradespeople  trying  to  put  me  in  prison." 

'  I  will  tell  Saunders  at  once,"  Jeanne  said.    "  I 
am  quite  ready  to  do  anything  you  think  best." 

The  Princess  laughed  hardly. 
'  You  will  have  to  manage  without  Saunders," 
she    answered.      "  Paupers    like    us    can't    afford 
maids.     I  am  going  to  discharge  every  one  this 


284     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

afternoon.     Have  your  boxes  packed,  please,  to- 
night.   Your  dinner  will  be  sent  up  to  you." 

The  Princess  left  the  room,  and  Jeanne  heard 
the  key  turn  in  the  lock. 


CHAPTER   X 

Jeanne's  packing  was  after  all  a  very  small 
matter.  She  ignored  the  cupboards  full  of  gowns, 
nor  did  she  open  one  of  the  drawers  of  her  ward- 
robe. She  simply  filled  her  dressing-case  with  a 
few  necessaries  and  hid  it  under  the  table.  At 
eight  o'clock  one  of  the  servants  brought  her  dinner 
on  a  tray.  Jeanne  saw  with  relief  that  it  was  one 
of  the  younger  parlour  maids,  and  not  the  Princess' 
own  maid. 

"  Mary,"  Jeanne  said,  taking  a  gold  bracelet 
from  her  wrist  and  holding  it  out  to  her,  "  I  am 
going  to  give  you  this  bracelet  if  you  will  do  just 
a  very  simple  thing  for  me." 

The  girl  looked  at  Jeanne  and  looked  at  the 
bracelet.    She  was  too  amazed  for  speech. 

"  I  want  you,"  Jeanne  said,  "  when  you  go  out 
to  leave  the  door  unlocked.  That  is  all.  It  will 
not  make  any  difference  to  you  so  far  as  your  posi- 
tion here  is  concerned,  because  your  mistress  is 
sending  you  all  away  in  a  few  days." 

The  girl  looked  at  the  bracelet  and  did  not 
hesitate  for  a  moment. 


286     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

"  I  would  do  it  for  you  without  anything,  Miss 
Jeanne,"  she  said.  "  The  bracelet  is  too  good  for 
me. 

Jeanne  laughed,  and  pushed  it  across  the  table 
to  her. 

"  Run  along,"  she  said.  "  If  you  want  to  do 
something  else,  open  the  back  door  for  me.  I  am 
coming  downstairs." 

The  girl  looked  a  little  perplexed.  The  brace- 
let which  she  was  holding  still  engrossed  most  of 
her  thoughts. 

"  You  are  not  doing  anything  rash,  Miss  Jeanne, 
I  hope?  "  she  asked  timidly. 

Jeanne  shook  her  head. 

"  What  I  am  doing  is  not  rash  at  all,"  she  said 
softly.     "  It  is  necessary." 

Five  minutes  later  Jeanne  walked  unnoticed 
down  the  back  stairs  of  the  house,  and  out  into 
the  street.  She  turned  into  Piccadilly  and  entered 
a  bus. 

"  Where  to,  miss?  "  the  man  asked,  as  he  came 
for  his  fare. 

"  I  do  not  know,"  Jeanne  said.  '  I  will  tell 
you  presently." 

The  man  stared  at  her  and  passed  on.  Jeanne 
had  spoken  the  truth.  She  had  no  idea  where  she 
was  going.  Her  one  idea  was  to  get  away  from 
every  one  whom  she  knew,  or  who  had  known  her, 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     287 

as  the  Princess'  ward  and  a  great  heiress.  She  sat 
in  a  corner  of  the  bus,  and  she  watched  the  stream 
of  people  pass  by.  Even  there  she  shrank  from 
any  face  or  figure  which  seemed  to  her  familiar. 
She  almost  forgot  that  she,  too,  had  been  a  victim 
of  her  stepmother's  deception.  She  remembered 
only  that  she  had  been  the  principal  figure  in  it, 
and  that  to  the  whole  world  she  must  seem  an 
object  for  derision  and  contempt.  It  was  not  her 
fault  that  she  had  played  a  false  part  in  life.  But 
nevertheless  she  had  played  it,  and  it  was  not  likely 
that  many  would  believe  her  innocent.  The 
thought  of  appealing  to  the  Duke,  or  to  Andrew 
de  la  Borne,  for  help,  made  her  cheeks  burn  with 
shame.  In  any  ordinary  trouble  she  would  have 
gone  to  them.  This,  however,  was  something  too 
humiliating,  too  impossible.  She  felt  that  it  was  a 
blow  which  she  could  ask  no  one  to  share. 

The  omnibus  rolled  on  eastwards  and  reached 
Liverpool  Street.  A  sudden  overwhelming  im- 
pulse decided  Jeanne  as  to  her  destination.  She 
remembered  that  peculiar  sense  of  freedom,  that 
first  escape  from  her  cramped  surroundings,  which 
had  come  to  her  walking  upon  the  marshes  of  Salt- 
house.  She  would  go  there  again,  if  it  was  only 
for  a  day  or  two;  find  rooms  somewhere  in  the 
village,  and  write  to  Monsieur  Laplanche  from 
there.     Visitors  she  knew  were  not  uncommon  in 


288     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

the  little  seaside  village,  and  she  would  easily  be 
able  to  keep  out  of  the  way  of  Cecil,  if  he  were 
still  there.  The  idea  seemed  to  her  like  an  in- 
spiration. She  went  up  to  the  ticket-office  and 
asked  for  a  ticket  for  Salthouse.  The  man  stared 
at  her. 

"  Never  heard  of  the  place,  miss,"  he  said. 
"  It's  not  on  our  line." 

"  It  is  near  Wells  on  the  east  coast,"  she  said. 
"  Now  I  think  of  it,  I  remember  one  has  to  drive 
from  Wells.     Can  I  have  a  ticket  to  there?  " 

He  glanced  at  the  clock. 

"  The  train  goes  in  ten  minutes,  miss,"  he  said. 

Jeanne  travelled  first,  because  she  had  never 
thought  of  travelling  any  other  way.  She  sat  in 
the  corner  of  an  empty  carriage,  looking  steadily 
out  of  the  window,  and  seeing  nothing  but  the 
fragments  of  her  little  life.  Now  that  she  was 
detached  from  it,  she  seemed  to  realize  how  little 
real  pleasure  she  had  found  in  the  life  which  the 
Princess  had  insisted  upon  dragging  her  into.  She 
remembered  how  every  man  whom  she  had  met 
addressed  her  with  the  same  empressement,  how 
their  eyes  seemed  to  have  followed  her  about  al- 
most covetously,  how  the  girls  had  openly  envied 
her,  how  the  court  of  the  men  had  been  so  monot- 
onous and  so  unreal.  She  drew  a  little  breath, 
almost  of  relief.    When  she  was  used  to  the  idea 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     289 

she  might  even  be  glad  that  this  great  fortune  had 
taken  to  itself  wings  and  flitted  away.  She  was 
no  longer  the  heiress  of  untold  wealth.  She  was 
simply  a  girl,  standing  on  the  threshold  of  life, 
and  looking  forward  to  the  happiness  which  at 
that  age  seems  almost  a  natural  heritage. 

The  sense  of  freedom  grew  on  her  next  morn- 
ing, as  she  walked  once  more  upon  the  marshes, 
listened  to  the  larks,  now  in  full  song,  and  felt  the 
touch  of  the  salt  wind  upon  her  cheeks.  She  had 
found  rooms  very  easily,  and  no  one  had  seemed 
to  treat  her  coming  as  anything  but  a  matter  of 
course.  One  old  fisherman  of  whom  she  asked 
questions,  told  her  many  queer  stories  about  the 
Red  Hall  and  its  occupants. 

"  As  restless  young  men  as  them  two  as  is  there 
now,"  he  admitted,  "  Mr.  Cecil  and  his  friend,  I 
never  did  see.  Fust  one  of  them  one  day  goes  to 
London,  back  he  comes  on  the  next  day,  and  away 
goes  the  other.  Why  they  don't  go  both  together 
the  Lord  only  knows,  but  that  is  so  for  a  fact,  miss, 
and  you  can  take  it  from  me.  Every  week  of 
God's  year,  one  of  them  goes  to  London,  and  di- 
rectly he  comes  back  the  other  goes." 

"And  Mr.  Andrew  de  la  Borne?"  she  asked. 
"  Has  he  gone  back  there  yet?  " 

"  He  have  not,"  the  man  answered,  "  but  I 
doubt  he'll  be  back  again  one  day  'fore  long.    Sure 


290     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

he  need  be.  They're  beginning  to  talk,  about  the 
shuttered  windows  at  the  Red  Hall." 

The  girl  turned  and  looked  toward  the  house, 
bleak  and  desolate-looking  enough  now  that  the 
few  encircling  trees  were  shorn  of  their  leaves. 

"  I  shouldn't  care  to  live  there  all  the  year 
round,"  she  remarked. 

"  I've  heerd  others  say  the  same  thing,"  he  an- 
swered, "  and  yet  in  Salthouse  village  we're  mod- 
erate well  satisfied  with  life.  It's  them  as  have 
too  much,"  he  continued,  "  who  rush  about  trying 
to  make  more.  A  simple  life  and  a  simple  lot  is 
what's  best  in  this  world." 

"  Things  were  livelier  up  there,"  Jeanne  re- 
marked, seating  herself  on  the  edge  of  his  boat, 
"  when  the  smugglers  used  to  bring  in  their  goods." 

The  old  man  smiled. 

"Why  that's  so,  lady,"  he  admitted.  "Lord! 
When  I  was  a  boy  I  mind  some  great  doings.  One 
night  there  was  a  great  fight.  I  mind  it  now. 
Fifteen  of  the  King's  men  were  lying  hidden  close 
to  the  cove  there,  and  it  looked  for  all  the  world 
as  though  the  boats  which  were  being  rowed  ashore 
must  fall  right  into  their  hands.  They  were  watch- 
ing from  the  Hall,  though,  and  the  Squire's  new 
alarm  was  set  going.  It  were  a  cry  like  a  siren, 
rising  and  falling  like.  The  boats  heerd  it  and 
turned  back,  but  three  of  the  Squire's  men  were  set 


JEANNE    OF    THE    MARSHES     291 

on,  and  a  rare  fight  there  was  that  night.  There 
was  broken  heads  to  be  mended,  and  no  mistake. 
Mat  Knowles  here,  the  father  of  him  who  keeps 
the  public  now,  he  right  forgot  to  shut  his  inn,  and 
there  it  was  open  two  hours  past  the  lawful  time, 
and  all  were  drinking  as  though  it  were  a  great 
day  of  rejoicing,  instead  of  being  one  of  sorrow 
for  the  De  la  Bornes.  I  mind  you  were  here  a 
few  weeks  ago,  miss.  You  know  the  two  Mr.  De 
la  Bornes?  " 

"Yes!"  Jeanne  admitted.  "I  know  them 
slightly." 

"  Mr.  Andrew,  he  be  one  of  the  best,"  the  man 
declared,  "  but  Mr.  Cecil  we  none  of  us  can  under- 
stand, him  nor  his  friends.  What  he  is  doing  up 
there  now  with  this  man  what's  staying  with  him, 
there's  none  can  tell.  Maybe  they  gamble  at  cards, 
maybe  they  just  sit  and  look  at  one  another,  but 
'tis  a  strange  sort  of  life  anyhow." 

'  I  think  it  is  a  very  interesting  place  to  live  in," 
Jeanne  said.  "  What  became  of  the  siren  which 
warned  the  smugglers?" 

'  There's  no  one  here  as  can  tell  that,  miss," 
the  man  answered.  "  There  are  them  as  have 
fancied  on  windy  nights  as  they've  heerd  it,  but 
fancy  it  have  been,  in  my  opinion.  Five  and  twenty 
years  have  gone  since  I've  heerd  it  mysen,  and 
there's  few  'as  better  ears." 


292     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

"  Mr.  Andrew  de  la  Borne  is  not  here  now,  is 
he?  "  she  asked. 

The  fisherman  shook  his  head. 

"  Mr.  Andrew,"  he  said,  "  is  mortal  afraid  of 
strangers  and  such  like,  and  there's  photographers 
and  newspaper  men  round  in  these  parts  just  now, 
by  reason  of  the  disappearance  of  this  young  lord 
that  you  heerd  tell  on.  Some  say  he  was  drowned, 
and  I  have  heerd  folk  whisper  about  a  duel  with 
the  gentleman  as  is  with  Mr.  Cecil  now.  Any- 
way, it  was  here  that  he  disappeared  from,  and 
though  I've  not  seen  it  in  print,  I've  heerd  as  his 
brother  is  offering  a  reward  of  a  thousand  pounds 
to  any  as  might  find  him.  It's  a  power  of  money 
that,  miss." 

"  It  is  a  great  deal  of  money,"  Jeanne  admitted. 
"  I  wonder  if  Lord  Ronald  was  worth  it." 


CHAPTER    XI 

The  two  men  sat  opposite  to  one  another  sep- 
arated only  by  the  small  round  table  upon  which 
the  dessert  which  had  followed  their  dinner  was 
still  standing.  Even  Forrest's  imperturbable  face 
showed  signs  of  the  anxiety  through  which  he  had 
passed.  The  change  in  Cecil,  however,  was  far 
more  noticeable.  There  were  lines  under  his  eyes 
and  a  flush  upon  his  cheeks,  as  though  he  had  been 
drinking  heavily.  The  details  of  his  toilette,  usu- 
ally so  immaculate,  were  uncared  for.  He  was 
carelessly  dressed,  and  his  hair  no  longer  shone 
with  frequent  brushings.  He  looked  like  a  person 
passing  through  the  rapid  stages  of  deterioration. 

"  Forrest,"  he  said,  "  I  cannot  stand  it  any 
longer.  This  place  is  sending  me  mad.  I  think 
that  the  best  thing  we  can  do  is  to  chuck  it." 

"Do  you?"  Forrest  answered  drily.  "That 
may  be  all  very  well  for  you,  a  countryman,  with 
enough  to  live  on,  and  the  whole  world  before  you. 
As  for  me,  I  couldn't  face  it.  I  have  passed  middle 
age,  and  my  life  runs  in  certain  grooves.  It  must 
run  in  them  now  until  the  end.     I  cannot  break 


294     JEANNE    OF  THE    MARSHES 

away.  I  would  not  if  I  could.  Existence  would 
simply  be  intolerable  for  me  if  that  young  fool 
were  ever  allowed  to  tell  his  story." 

"  We  cannot  keep  him  for  ever,"  Cecil  answered 
gloomily.  "  We  cannot  play  the  jailer  here  all  our 
lives.  Besides,  there  is  always  the  danger  of  being 
found  out.  There  are  two  detectives  in  the  place 
already,  and  I  am  fairly  certain  that  if  they  have 
been  in  the  house  while  we  have  been  out  — ' 

"  There  is  nothing  for  them  to  discover  here," 
Forrest  answered.  "  I  should  keep  the  doors  open. 
Let  them  search  if  they  want  to." 

"  That  is  all  very  well,"  Cecil  answered,  "  but 
if  these  fellows  hang  about  the  place,  sooner  or 
later  they  will  hear  some  of  the  stories  these  vil- 
lagers are  only  too  anxious  to  tell." 

Forrest  nodded. 

"  There,"  he  said,  "  I  am  not  disinclined  to 
agree  with  you.  Hasn't  it  ever  struck  you,  De  la 
Borne,"  he  continued,  after  a  moment's  slight  hesi- 
tation, "  that  there  is  only  one  logical  way  out  of 
this?" 

"  No!  "  Cecil  answered  eagerly.  "  What  way? 
What  do  you  mean?  " 

Forrest  filled  his  glass  to  the  brim  with  wine 
before  he  answered.  Then  he  passed  the  decanter 
back  to  Cecil. 

"  We  are  not  children,  you  and  I,"   he  said. 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     295 

c  Why  should  we  let  a  boy  like  Engleton  play  with 
us?  Why  do  we  not  let  him  have  the  issue  before 
him  in  black  and  white  ?  We  say  to  him  now  — 
'  Sign  this  paper,  pledge  your  word  of  honour,  and 
you  may  go.'  He  declines.  He  declines  because 
the  alternative  of  staying  where  he  is  is  endurable. 
I  propose  that  we  substitute  another  alternative. 
Drink  your  wine,  De  la  Borne.  This  is  a  chill 
house  of  yours,  and  one  loses  courage  here.  Drink 
your  wine,  and  think  of  what  I  have  said." 

Cecil  set  down  his  glass  empty. 

"  Well,"  he  said,  "  what  other  alternative  do 
you  propose?  " 

"Can't  you  see?"  Forrest  answered.  "We 
cannot  keep  Engleton  shut  up  for  ever.  I  grant 
you  that  that  is  impossible.  But  if  he  declines  to 
behave  like  a  reasonable  person,  we  can  threaten 
him  with  an  alternative  which  I  do  not  think  he 
would  have  the  courage  to  face." 

"  You  mean?  "  Cecil  gasped. 

'  I  mean,"  Forrest  answered,  "  what  your 
grandfather  would  have  told  him,  or  your  great 
grandfather,  in  half  a  dozen  words  weeks  ago. 
At  full  tide  there  is  sea  enough  to  drown  a  dozen 
such  as  he  within  a  few  yards  of  where  he  lies. 
Why  should  we  keep  him  carefully  and  safe,  know- 
ing that  the  moment  he  steps  back  into  life  you  and 
I  are  doomed  men?  " 


296     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

Cecil  drew  a  little  breath  and  lifted  his  hand 
to  his  forehead.  He  was  surprised  to  find  it  wet. 
All  the  time  he  was  gazing  at  Forrest  with  fas- 
cinated eyes. 

"  Look  here,"  he  said,  in  a  hoarse  whisper,  "  we 
mustn't  talk  like  this.  Engleton  will  turn  round 
in  a  day  or  two.  People  would  think,  if  they  heard 
us,  that  we  were  planning  a  murder." 

"  In  a  woman's  decalogue,"  Forrest  said,  "  there 
is  no  sin  save  the  sin  of  being  found  out.  Why 
not  in  ours?  No  one  ever  had  such  a  chance  of 
getting  rid  of  a  dangerous  enemy.  The  whole 
thing  is  in  our  hands.  We  could  never  be  found 
out,  never  even  questioned.  If,  by  one  chance  in 
a  thousand,  his  body  is  ever  recovered,  what  more 
natural?  Men  have  been  drowned  before  on  the 
marshes  here  many  a  time." 

"  Go  on !  "  Cecil  said.  "  You  have  thought  this 
out.    Tell  me  exactly  what  you  propose." 

"  I  propose,"  Forrest  answered,  "  that  we  nar- 
row the  issues,  and  that  we  put  them  before  him 
in  plain  English,  now  —  to-night  —  while  the 
courage  is  still  with  us.  It  must  be  silence  or 
death.  I  tell  you  frankly  how  it  is  with  me.  I 
would  as  soon  press  a  pistol  to  my  forehead  and 
pull  the  trigger  as  have  this  boy  go  back  into  the 
world  and  tell  his  story.  For  you,  too,  it  would 
be  ruin." 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     297 

Cecil  sank  back  into  his  chair,  and  looked  with 
wide-open  but  unseeing  eyes  across  the  table, 
through  the  wall  beyond.  He  saw  his  future 
damned  by  that  one  unpardonable  accusation.  He 
saw  himself  sent  out  into  the  world  penniless,  an 
outcast  from  all  the  things  in  life  which  made  ex- 
istence tolerable.  He  knew  very  well  that  Andrew 
would  never  forgive.  There  was  no  mercy  to  be 
hoped  for  from  him.  There  was  nothing  to  be 
looked  for  anywhere  save  disaster,  absolute  and 
entire.  He  looked  across  at  Forrest,  and  some- 
thing in  his  companion's  face  sent  a  cold  shiver 
through  his  veins. 

"  We  might  go  and  see  what  he  says,"  he  fal- 
tered. "  I  haven't  been  there  since  the  morning, 
have  you?  " 

'No!"  Forrest  answered.  "Solitude  is  good 
for  him.    Let  us  go  now,  together." 

Without  another  word  they  rose  from  the  table. 
Cecil  led  the  way  into  the  library,  where  he  rang 
for  a  servant. 

"  Set  out  the  card-table  here,"  he  ordered,  "  and 
bring  in  the  whisky  and  soda.  After  that  we  do 
not  wish  to  be  disturbed.    You  understand?  " 

"  Certainly,  sir,"  the  man  answered. 

They  waited  until  the  things  were  brought. 
Afterwards  they  locked  the  door.  Cecil  went  to 
a  drawer  and  took  out  a  couple  of  electric  torches, 


298     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

one  of  which  he  handed  to  Forrest.  Then  he  went 
to  the  wall,  and  after  a  few  minutes'  groping, 
found  the  spring.  The  door  swung  open,  and  a 
rush  of  unwholesome  air  streamed  into  the  room. 
They  made  their  way  silently  along  the  passage 
until  at  last  they  reached  the  sunken  chamber. 
Cecil  took  a  key  from  his  pocket  and  opened  the 
door. 

Engleton  was  in  evil  straits,  but  there  was  no 
sign  of  yielding  in  his  face  as  he  looked  up.  He 
was  seated  before  a  small  table  upon  which  a  com- 
mon lamp  was  burning.  His  clothes  hung  about 
him  loosely.  His  face  was  haggard.  A  short,  un- 
becoming beard  disfigured  his  face.  He  wore  no 
collar  or  necktie,  and  his  general  appearance  was 
altogether  dishevelled.  Forrest  looked  at  him 
critically. 

"  My  dear  Engleton!  "  he  began. 

"  What  the  devil  do  you  want  with  me  at  this 
time  of  night?"  Engleton  interrupted.  "Have 
you  come  down  to  see  how  I  amuse  myself  during 
the  long  evenings?  Perhaps  you  would  like  to 
come  and  play  cut-throat.  I'll  play  you  for  what 
stakes  you  like,  and  thank  you  for  coming,  if  you'll 
leave  the  door  open  and  let  me  breathe  a  little 
better  air." 

11  It  is  your  own  fault  that  you  are  here,"  Cecil 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES    299 

de  la  Borne  declared.  "  It  is  all  your  cursed  ob- 
stinacy. Listen!  I  tell  you  once  more  that  what 
you  saw,  or  fancied  you  saw,  was  a  mistake.  For- 
get it.  Give  your  word  of  honour  to  forget  it, 
never  to  allude  to  it  at  any  time  in  your  life,  and 
you  can  walk  out  of  here  a  free  man." 

Engleton  nodded. 

'  I  have  no  doubt  of  it,"  he  answered.  "  The 
worst  of  it  is  that  nothing  in  the  world  would  in- 
duce me  to  forego  the  pleasure  I  promise  myself, 
before  very  long,  too,  of  giving  to  the  whole  world 
the  story  of  your  infamy.  I  am  not  tractable  to- 
night. You  had  better  go  away,  both  of  you.  I 
am  more  likely  to  fight." 

Forrest  sat  down  on  the  edge  of  a  chest. 

"  Engleton,"  he  said,  "  don't  be  a  fool.  It  can 
do  you  no  particular  good  to  ruin  Cecil  here  and 
myself,  just  because  you  happen  to  be  suspicious. 
Let  that  drop.  Tell  us  that  you  have  decided  to 
let  it  drop,  and  the  world  can  take  you  into  its 
arms  again." 

"  I  refuse,"  Engleton  answered.  "  I  refuse 
once  and  for  always.  I  tell  you  that  I  have  made 
up  my  mind  to  see  you  punished  for  this.  How 
I  get  out  I  don't  care,  but  I  shall  get  out,  and  when 
I  do,  you  two  will  be  laid  by  the  heels." 

"  We  came  here  to-night,"  Forrest  said  slowly, 
"  prepared  to  compromise  with  you." 


300     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

"  There  is  no  compromise,"  Engleton  answered 
fiercely.  "  There  is  nothing  which  you  could  offer 
which  could  repay  me  for  the  horror  of  the  nights 
you  have  left  me  to  shiver  here  in  this  d — d  vault. 
Don't  flatter  yourself  that  I  shall  ever  forget  it.  I 
stay  on  because  I  cannot  escape,  but  I  would  sooner 
stay  here  for  ever  than  beg  for  mercy  from  either 
of  you." 

"  Upon  my  word,"  Forrest  declared,  "  our 
friend  is  quite  a  hero." 

"  I  am  hero  enough,  at  any  rate,"  Engleton 
answered,  "  to  refuse  to  bargain  with  you.  Get 
out,  both  of  you,  before  I  lose  my  temper." 

Forrest  came  a  little  further  into  the  room.  The 
thunder  of  the  sea  seemed  almost  above  their 
heads.  The  little  lamp  on  the  table  by  Engleton's 
side  gave  little  more  than  a  weird,  unnatural  light 
around  the  circle  in  which  he  sat. 

"  That  isn't  quite  all  that  we  came  to  say,"  For- 
rest remarked  coldly.  "  To  tell  you  the  truth  we 
have  had  enough  of  playing  jailer." 

"  I  can  assure  you,"  Engleton  answered,  "  that 
I  have  had  equally  enough  of  being  your  prisoner." 

"  We  are  agreed,  then,"  Forrest  continued 
smoothly.  "  You  will  probably  be  relieved  when 
I  tell  you  that  we  have  decided  to  end  it." 

Engleton  rose  to  his  feet. 

"  So  much  the  better,"  he  said.     "  You  might 


JEANNE    OF    THE    MARSHES     301 

keep  me  here  till  doomsday,  and  the  end  would 
be  the  same." 

"  We  do  not  propose,"  Forrest  continued,  "  to 
keep  you  here  till  doomsday,  or  anything  like  it. 
What  we  have  come  to  say  to  you  is  this  —  that 
if  you  still  refuse  to  give  your  promise  —  I  need 
not  say  more  than  that  —  we  are  going  to  set  you 
free." 

"  Do  you  mean  that  literally?  "  Engleton  asked. 

"  Perhaps  not  altogether  as  you  would  wish  to 
understand  it,"  Forrest  admitted.  "  We  shall 
give  you  a  chance  at  high  tide  to  swim  for  your 
life." 

Engleton  shrunk  a  little  back.  After  all,  his 
nerves  were  a  little  shattered. 

"Out  there?'  he  asked,  pointing  to  the  sea- 
ward end  of  the  passage. 

Forrest  nodded. 

"  It  will  be  a  chance  for  you,"  he  said. 

Engleton  looked  at  them  for  a  moment,  dumb- 
founded. « 

"  It  will  be  murder,"  he  said  slowly. 

Forrest  shrugged  his  shoulders. 

"  You  may  call  it  so  if  you  like,"  he  answered. 
"  Personally,  I  should  not  be  inclined  to  agree 
with  you.  You  will  be  alive  when  you  go  into  the 
sea.    If  you  cannot  swim,  the  fault  is  not  ours." 

"  And  when,  may  I  ask,"  Engleton  continued, 


302     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

"  do  you  propose  to  put  into  operation  your  ami- 
able plan?  " 

"  Just  whensoever  we  please,  you  d — d  obstinate 
young  puppy !  "  Forrest  cried,  suddenly  losing  his 
nerve.  "  Curse  your  silent  tongue  and  your  ven- 
omous face !  You  think  you  can  get  the  better 
of  us,  do  you?  Well,  you  are  mistaken.  You'll 
tell  no  stories  from  amongst  the  seaweed." 

Engleton  nodded. 

"  I  shall  take  particular  good  care,"  he  said,  "  to 
avoid  the  seaweed." 

"  Enough,"  Forrest  declared.  "  Listen  !  Here 
is  the  issue.  We  are  tired  of  negative  things.  To- 
night you  sign  the  paper  and  give  us  your  word 
of  honour  to  keep  silent,  or  before  morning,  when 
the  tide  is  full,  you  go  into  the  sea !  " 

"  I  warn  you,"  Engleton  said,  "  that  I  can 
swim." 

"  I  will  guarantee,"  Forrest  answered  suavely, 
"  that  by  the  time  you  reach  the  water  you  will 
have  forgotten  how." 


CHAPTER   XII 

The  days  that  followed  were  strange  ones  for 
Jeanne.  Every  morning  at  sunrise,  or  before,  she 
would  steal  out  of  the  little  cottage  where  she  was 
staying,  and  make  her  way  along  the  top  of  one 
of  the  high  dyke  banks  to  the  sea.  Often  she  saw 
the  sun  rise  from  some  lonely  spot  amongst  the 
sandbanks  or  the  marshes,  heard  the  awakening  of 
the  birds,  and  saw  the  first  glimpses  of  morning 
life  steal  into  evidence  upon  the  grey  chill  wilder- 
ness. At  such  times  she  saw  few  people.  The 
house  where  she  was  staying  was  apart  from  the 
village,  and  near  the  head  of  one  of  the  creeks, 
and  there  were  times  whan  she  would  leave  it  and 
return  without  having  seen  a  single  human  being. 
She  knew,  from  cautious  inquiries  made  from  her 
landlady's  daughter,  that  Cecil  and  Major  Forrest 
were  still  at  the  Red  Hall,  and  for  that  reason  dur- 
ing the  daytime  she  seldom  left  the  cottage,  sitting 
out  in  the  old-fashioned  garden,  or  walking  a  little 
way  in  the  fields  at  the  back.  For  the  future  she 
made  no  plans.  She  was  quite  content  to  feel  that 
for  the  present  she  had  escaped  from  an  intolerable 
situation. 


304     JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES 

The  woman  from  whom  Jeanne  had  taken  the 
rooms,  a  Mrs.  Caynsard,  she  had  seen  only  once 
or  twice.  She  was  waited  upon  most  of  the  time 
by  an  exceedingly  diminutive  maid  servant,  very 
shy  at  first,  but  very  talkative  afterwards,  in  broad 
Norfolk  dialect,  when  she  had  grown  a  little  ac- 
customed to  this  very  unusual  lodger.  Now  and 
then  Kate  Caynsard,  the  only  daughter  of  the 
house,  appeared,  but  for  the  most  time  she  was 
away,  sailing  a  fishing  boat  or  looking  after  the 
little  farm.  To  Jeanne  she  represented  a  type 
wholly  strange,  but  altogether  interesting.  She 
was  little  over  twenty  years  of  age,  but  she  was 
strong  and  finely  built.  She  had  the  black  hair  and 
dark  brown  eyes,  which  here  and  there  amongst 
the  villagers  of  the  east  coast  remind  one  of  the 
immigration  of  worsted  spinners  and  silk  weavers 
from  Flanders  and  the  North  of  France,  many 
centuries  ago.  She  was  very  handsome  but  exceed- 
ingly shy.  When  Jeanne,  as  she  had  done  more 
than  once,  tried  to  talk  to  her,  her  abrupt  replies 
gave  little  opening  for  conversation.  One  morn- 
ing, however,  when  Jeanne,  having  returned  from 
a  long  tramp  across  the  sand  dunes,  was  sit- 
ting in  the  little  orchard  at  the  back  of  the  house, 
she  saw  her  landlady's  daughter  come  slowly 
out  to  her  from  the  house.  Jeanne  put  down  her 
book. 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     305 

"Good  morning,  Miss  Caynsard!"  she  said. 

"  Good  morning,  miss!  "  the  girl  answered  awk- 
wardly.    "  You  have  had  a  long  walk!  ' 

Jeanne  nodded. 

"  I  went  so  far,"  she  said,  "  that  I  had  to  race 
the  tide  home,  or  I  should  have  had  to  wade 
through  the  home  creek." 

Kate  nodded. 

"  The  tide  do  come  sometimes,"  she  said,  "  at 
a  most  awful  pace.  I  have  been  out  after  whelks 
myself,  and  had  to  walk  home  with  the  sea  all 
round  me,  and  nothing  but  a  ribbon  of  dry  land. 
One  needs  to  know  the  ways  about  on  this  wilder- 
ness." 

"  One  learns  them  by  watching,"  Jeanne  re- 
marked. "  I  suppose  you  have  lived  here  all  your 
life." 

"  All  my  life,"  the  girl  answered,  '  and  my 
father  and  grandfather  before  me.  'Tis  a  queer 
country,  but  them  as  is  born  and  bred  here  seldom 
leaves  it.  Sometimes  they  try.  They  go  to  the 
next  village  inland,  or  to  some  town,  or  to  foreign 
parts,  but  sooner  or  later  if  they  live  they  come 
back." 

Jeanne  nodded  sympathetically. 

"  It  is  a  wonderful  country,"  she  said.  '  When 
I  saw  it  first  it  seemed  to  me  that  it  was  depressing. 
Now  I  love  it !  " 


306     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

"  And  I,"  the  girl  remarked,  with  a  sudden 
passion  in  her  tone,  "  I  hate  it!  " 

Jeanne  looked  at  her,  surprised. 

"  It  sounds  so  strange  to  hear  you  say  that,"  she 
remarked.  "  I  should  have  thought  that  any  one 
who  had  lived  here  always  would  have  loved  it. 
Every  day  I  am  here  I  seem  to  discover  new  beau- 
ties, a  new  effect  of  colouring,  a  new  undertone  of 
the  sea,  or  to  hear  the  cry  of  some  new  bird." 

"  It  is  beautiful  sometimes,"  the  girl  answered. 
"  I  love  it  when  the  creeks  are  full,  and  the  April 
sun  is  shining,  and  the  spring  seems  to  draw  all 
manner  of  living  things  and  colours  from  the 
marsh  and  the  pasturage  lands.  I  love  it  when 
the  sea  changes  its  colour  as  the  clouds  pass  over 
the  sun,  and  the  wind  blows  from  the  west.  The 
place  is  well  enough  then.  But  there  are  times 
when  it  is  nothing  but  a  great  wilderness  of  mud, 
and  the  grey  mists  come  blowing  in,  and  one  is 
cold  here,  cold  to  the  bone.  Then  I  hate  the  place 
worse  than  ever." 

"  Have  you  ever  tried  to  go  away  for  a  time?  " 
Jeanne  asked. 

"  I  went  once  to  London,"  the  girl  said,  turning 
her  head  a  little  away.  "  I  should  have  stayed 
there,  I  think,  if  things  had  turned  out  as  I  had 
expected,  but  they  didn't,  and  my  father  died  sud- 
denly, so  I  came  home  to  take  care  of  the  farm." 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES    307 

Jeanne  nodded  sympathetically.  She  was  begin- 
ning to  wonder  why  this  girl  had  come  out  from 
the  house  with  the  obvious  intention  of  speaking 
to  her.  She  stood  by  her  side,  not  exactly  awk- 
ward, but  still  not  wholly  at  her  ease,  her  hands 
clasped  behind  her  straight  back,  her  black  eye- 
brows drawn  together  in  a  little  uneasy  frown. 
Her  coarse  brown  skirt  was  not  long  enough  to 
conceal  her  wonderfully  shaped  ankles.  Sun  and 
wind  had  done  little  more  than  slightly  tan  her 
clear  complexion.  She  had  somehow  the  appear- 
ance of  a  girl  of  some  other  nation.  There  was 
something  stronger,  more  forceful,  more  brilliant 
about  her,  than  her  position  seemed  to  warrant. 

"  There  is  a  question,  miss,"  she  said  at  last, 
abruptly,  "  I  should  like  to  ask  you.  I  should 
have  asked  you  when  you  first  came,  if  I  had  been 
in  when  you  came  to  look  at  the  rooms." 

"  What  is  it?  "  Jeanne  asked  quietly. 

"  I've  a  good  eye  for  faces,"  Kate  said,  "  and 
I  seldom  forget  one.  Weren't  you  the  young  lady 
who  was  staying  up  at  the  Red  Hall  a  few  weeks 
ago?" 

Jeanne  nodded. 

"  Yes,"  she  said,  "  I  was  staying  there.  It  was 
because  I  liked  the  place  so  much,  and  because  I 
was  so  much  happier  here  than  in  London,  that  I 
came  back." 


308    JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

There  was  a  moment's  silence.  Jeanne  looked 
up  and  found  Kate's  magnificent  eyes  fixed  stead- 
fastly upon  her  face. 

"  Is  it  for  no  other  reason,  miss,"  she  asked, 
"  that  you  have  come  back?  " 

"  For  none  other  in  the  world,"  Jeanne  an- 
swered. "  I  was  unhappy  in  London,  and  I  wanted 
to  get  somewhere  where  I  should  be  quite  un- 
known.   That  is  why  I  came  here." 

"  You  didn't  come  back,"  Kate  asked,  "  to  see 
more  of  Mr.  De  la  Borne,  then?  " 

The  simple  directness  of  the  question  seemed  to 
rob  it  of  its  impertinence.  Jeanne  laughed  good- 
humouredly. 

"  I  can  assure  you  that  I  did  not,"  she  answered. 
"  To  tell  you  the  truth,  and  I  hope  that  you  will 
be  kind  and  remember  that  I  do  not  wish  any  one 
to  know  this,  the  reason  why  I  only  go  out  so  early 
in  the  morning  or  late  at  night  is  because  I  do  not 
wish  to  see  any  one  from  the  Red  Hall.  I  do  not 
wish  them  to  know  that  I  am  here." 

"  They  do  gossip  in  a  small  place  like  this  most 
amazing,"  the  girl  said  slowly.  "  When  you  and 
the  other  lady  came  down  from  London  to  stay  up 
yonder,  they  did  say  that  you  were  a  great  heiress, 
and  that  Mr.  De  la  Borne  was  counting  on  marry- 
ing you,  and  buying  back  all  the  lands  that  have 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     309 

slipped  away  from  the  De  la  Bornes  back  to  Burn- 
ham  Market  and  Wells  township." 

Jeanne  shrugged  her  shoulders. 

"  I  cannot  help,"  she  said,  "  what  people  say. 
Every  one  has  spoken  of  me  always  as  being  very 
rich,  and  a  good  many  men  have  wanted  to  marry 
me  to  spend  my  money.  That  is  why  I  came  down 
here,  if  you  want  to  know,  Miss  Caynsard.  I  came 
to  escape  from  a  man  whom  my  stepmother  was 
determined  that  I  should  marry,  and  whom  I 
hated." 

The  girl  looked  at  her  wonderingly. 

"  It  is  a  strange  manner  of  living,"  she  said, 
4  when  a  girl  is  not  to  choose  her  own  man." 

'  In  any  case,"  Jeanne  said  smiling,  "  if  I  had 
but  one  or  two  to  choose  from  in  the  world,  I 
should  never  choose  Mr.  De  la  Borne." 

The  girl  was  gloomily  silent.  She  was  looking 
up  towards  the  Red  Hall,  her  lips  a  little  parted, 
her  face  dark,  her  brows  lowering. 

"  'Tis  a  family,"  she  said  slowly,  "  that  have 
come  down  well-nigh  to  their  last  acre.  They  hold 
on  to  the  Hall,  but  little  else.  Folk  say  that  for 
four  hundred  years  or  more  the  De  la  Bornes  have 
heard  the  sea  thunder  from  within  them  walls. 
'Tis,  perhaps,  as  some  writer  has  said  in  a  book 
I've  found  lately,  that  the  old  families  of  the  coun- 
try, when  once  their  menkind  cease  to  be  soldiers 


310     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

or  fighters  in  the  world,  do  decay  and  become  rot- 
ten. It  is  so  with  the  De  la  Bornes,  or  rather  with 
one  of  them." 

"  Mr.  Andrew,"  Jeanne  remarked  timidly. 

"  Mr.  Andrew,"  the  girl  interrupted,  "  is  a  great 
gentleman,  but  he  is  never  one  of  those  who  would 
stop  the  rot  in  a  decaying  race.  Pie  is  a  great 
strong  man  is  Mr.  Andrew,  and  deceit  and  little- 
ness are  things  he  knows  nothing  of.  I  wish  he 
were  here  to-day." 

The  girl's  face  wore  a  troubled  expression. 
Jeanne  began  to  suspect  that  she  had  not  as  yet 
come  to  the  real  object  of  this  interview. 

'  Why  do  you  wish  that  Mr.  Andrew  were 
here?"  Jeanne  asked.  "What  could  he  do  for 
you  that  Mr.  Cecil  could  not?  " 

A  strange  look  filled  the  girl's  eyes. 

"  I  think,"  she  said,  "  that  I  would  not  go  to 
Mr.  Cecil  whatever  might  betide,  but  there  is  a 
matter  —  " 

She  hesitated  again.  Jeanne  looked  at  her 
thoughtfully. 

"  You  have  something  on  your  mind,  I  think, 
Miss  Caynsard,"  she  said.  "  Can  I  help  you  ?  Do 
you  wish  to  tell  me  about  it?  " 

The  girl  seemed  to  have  made  up  her  mind. 
She  was  standing  quite  close  to  Jeanne  now,  and 
she  spoke  without  hesitation. 


JEANNE    OF    THE    MARSHES     311 

"  You  remember  the  young  lord,"  she  said,  "  of 
whom  there  has  been  so  much  in  the  papers  lately? 
He  was  staying  at  the  Red  Hall  when  you  were, 
and  is  supposed  to  have  left  for  London  early  one 
morning  and  disappeared." 

"  Lord  Ronald  Engleton,"  Jeanne  said.  "  Yes, 
I  know  all  about  that,  of  course." 

"  Sometimes,"  Kate  said  slowly,  "  I  have  had 
strange  thoughts  about  him.  Mr.  Cecil  and  the 
other  man,  Major  Forrest  they  call  him,  are  still 
at  the  Hall,  and  the  servants  say  that  they  do  little 
but  drink  and  swear  at  one  another.  I  wonder 
sometimes  why  they  are  there,  and  why  Mr.  An- 
drew stays  away." 

Jeanne   leaned   a   little    forward    in   her   chair. 
Something  in  the  other's  words  had  interested  her. 
;  There   is   something,"    she   said,    "  behind   in 
your  thoughts.    What  is  it?  " 

The  girl  was  silent  for  a  moment. 
:  To-night,"  she  said,  "  if  you  have  the  courage 
to  come  with  me,  I  will  show  you  what  I  mean." 


CHAPTER   XIII 

"  I  AM  afraid,"  Jeanne  declared,  "  that  I  can- 
not go  on.  I  have  not  the  eyes  of  a  cat.  I  cannot 
see  one  step  before  me." 

Her  companion  laughed  softly  as  she  turned 
round. 

"  I  forgot,"  she  said.  "  You  are  town  bred. 
To  us  the  darkness  is  nothing.  Do  not  be  afraid. 
I  know  the  way,  every  inch  of  it.  Give  me  your 
hand." 

"  But  I  cannot  see  at  all,"  Jeanne  declared. 
"  How  far  is  this  place?  " 

"  Less  than  a  mile,"  Kate  answered.  "  Trust  to 
me.  I  will  see  that  nothing  happens  to  you.  Hold 
my  hand  tightly,  like  that.     Now  come." 

Jeanne  reluctantly  trusted  herself  to  her  com- 
panion's guidance.  They  made  their  way  down 
the  rough  road  which  led  from  the  home  of  the 
Caynsards,  half  cottage,  half  farmhouse,  to  the 
lane  at  the  bottom.  There  was  no  moon,  and 
though  the  wind  was  blowing  hard,  the  sky  seemed 
everywhere  covered  with  black  clouds.  When 
Kate  opened  the  wooden  gate  which  led  on  to  the 
marshes,  Jeanne  stopped  short. 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES    313 

"  I  am  not  going  any  farther,"  she  declared. 
"  Even  you,  I  am  sure,  could  not  find  your  way 
on  the  marshes  to-night.  Didn't  you  hear  what 
the  fisherman  said,  too,  that  it  was  a  flood  tide? 
Many  of  the  paths  are  under  water.  I  will  not  go 
any  farther,  Kate.  If  there  is  anything  you  have 
to  tell  me,  say  it  now." 

She  felt  a  hand  suddenly  tighten  upon  her  arm, 
a  hand  which  was  like  a  vice. 

"  You  must  come  with  me,"  Kate  said.  "  As 
to  the  other  things,  do  not  be  foolish.  On  these 
marshes  I  am  like  a  cat  in  a  dark  room.  I  could 
feel  my  way  across  every  inch  of  them  on  the  black- 
est night  that  ever  was.  I  know  how  high  the  tide 
is.  I  measured  it  but  half  an  hour  since  by  Tread- 
well's  pole.  You  come  with  me,  miss.  You'll  not 
miss  your  way  by  a  foot.     I  promise  you  that." 

Even  then  Jeanne  was  reluctant.  They  were  on 
the  top  of  the  grass-grown  dyke  now,  and  below 
she  could  dimly  see  the  dark,  swelling  water  lap- 
ping against  the  gravel  bottom. 

"  But  you  do  not  understand,"  she  declared.  "  I 
do  not  even  know  where  to  put  my  feet.  I  can  see 
nothing,  and  the  wind  is  enough  to  blow  us  over 
the  sides.  Listen !  Listen  how  it  comes  booming 
across  the  sand  dunes.  It  is  not  safe  here.  I  tell 
you  that  I  must  go  back." 

Her  companion  only  laughed  a  little  wildly. 


314     JEANNE    OF    THE    MARSHES 

"  There  will  be  no  going  back  to-night,"  she 
said.  "  You  must  come  with  me.  Set  your  feet 
down  boldly.     If  you  are  afraid,  take  this." 

She  handed  her  a  small  electric  torch. 

"  It's  one  of  those  new-fangled  things  for  making 
light  in  the  darkness,"  she  remarked.  "  It's  no 
use  to  me,  for  if  I  could  not  see  I  could  feel.  For 
us  who  live  here,  'tis  but  an  instinct  to  find  our 
way,  in  darkness  or  in  light,  across  the  land  where 
we  were  born.  But  if  you  are  nervous,  press  the 
knob  and  you  will  see." 

Jeanne  took  the  torch  with  a  little  sigh  of  relief. 

"  Go  on,"  she  said.  "  I  don't  mind  so  much 
now  I  have  this." 

Nevertheless,  as  they  moved  along  she  found  it 
sufficiently  alarming.  The  top  of  the  bank  was  but 
a  few  feet  wide.  The  west  wind,  which  came  roar- 
ing down  across  the  great  open  spaces,  with  noth- 
ing to  check  or  divide  its  strength,  was  sometimes 
strong  enough  to  blow  them  off  their  balance.  On 
either  side  of  the  dyke  was  the  water,  black  and 
silent.  Here  and  there  the  torch  light  showed 
them  a  fishing-smack  or  a  catboat,  high  and  dry 
a  few  hours  ago,  now  floating  on  the  bosom  of 
the  full  tide.  They  came  to  a  stile,  and  Jeanne's 
courage  once  more  failed  her. 

"  I  cannot  climb  over  this,"  she  said.     "  I  shall 
fall  directly  I  lift  up  my  feet." 


JEANNE    OF    THE    MARSHES     315 

Kate  turned  round  with  a  little  laugh  of  con- 
tempt. Jeanne  felt  herself  suddenly  lifted  in  a 
pair  of  strong  arms.  Before  she  knew  where  she 
was  she  was  on  the  other  side.  Breathless  she  fol- 
lowed her  guide,  who  came  to  a  full  stop  a  few 
yards  farther  on. 

"  Turn  on  your  light,"  Kate  ordered.  "  Look 
down  on  the  left.    There  should  be  a  punt  there." 

Jeanne  turned  on  the  torch.  A  great  flat-bot- 
tomed boat,  shapeless  and  unwieldy,  was  just  be- 
low. Kate  stepped  lightly  down  the  steep  bank, 
and  with  one  foot  on  the  side  of  the  punt,  held  out 
her  hand  to  Jeanne. 

"  Come,"  she  said.     "  Step  carefully." 

"  But  what  are  we  going  to  do?  "  Jeanne  asked. 
"  You  are  not  going  in  that?  " 

"Why  not?"  Kate  laughed.  "It  is  a  few 
strokes  only.    We  are  going  to  cross  to  the  ridges." 

Jeanne  followed  her.  Somehow  or  other  she 
found  it  hard  to  disobey  her  guide.  None  the  less 
she  was  afraid.  She  stepped  tremblingly  down  into 
the  punt,  and  sat  upon  the  broad  wet  seat.  Kate, 
without  a  moment's  hesitation,  took  up  the  great 
pole  and  began  pushing  her  way  across  the  creek. 
The  tide  was  almost  at  its  height,  but  even  then 
the  current  was  so  strong  that  they  went  across 
almost  sideways,  and  Jeanne  heard  her  companion's 
breath  grow  shorter  and  shorter,  as  with  powerful 


316     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

strokes  she  did  her  best  to  guide  and  propel  the 
clumsy  craft. 

"  We  are  going  out  toward  the  sea,"  Jeanne 
faltered.     "  It  is  getting  wider  and  wider." 

She  flashed  her  torch  across  the  dark,  waters. 
They  could  not  see  the  bank  which  they  had  left 
or  the  ridges  to  which  they  were  making. 

"  Don't  be  afraid,"  Kate  answered.  "  After  all, 
you  know,  we  can  only  die  once,  and  life  isn't  worth 
making  such  a  tremendous  fuss  over." 

"  I  do  not  want  to  die,"  Jeanne  objected,  "  and 
I  do  not  like  this  at  all." 

Kate  laughed  contemptuously. 

"  Sit  still,"  she  said,  "  and  you  are  as  safe  as 
though  you  were  in  your  own  armchair.  No  cur- 
rent that  ever  ran  could  upset  this  clumsy  raft. 
The  only  reason  I  am  working  so  hard  is  that  I  do 
not  want  to  be  carried  down  past  the  ridges.  If 
we  get  too  low  down  we  shall  have  to  walk  across 
the  black  mud." 

Jeanne  kept  silence,  listening  only  to  the  swirl 
of  the  water  struck  by  the  pole,  and  to  the  quick 
breathing  of  her  companion.  Once  she  asked 
whether  she  could  not  help. 

"  There  is  no  need,"  Kate  answered.  "  Shine 
your  torch  on  the  left.    We  are  nearly  across." 

Almost  as  she  spoke  they  struck  the  sandy  bot- 
tom.    Jeanne   fell  into  the  bottom  of  the  boat. 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     317 

Kate,  with  a  little  laugh,  sprang  ashore  and  held 
out  her  hand. 

"  Come,"  she  said,  "  we  have  crossed  the  worst 
part  now." 

"  Where  are  we  going?"  Jeanne  asked,  a  little 
relieved  as  she  felt  her  feet  land  on  the  sodden  turf. 

"  Towards  the  Hall,"  Kate  answered.  "  Give 
me  your  hand,  if  you  like,  or  use  your  torch.  The 
way  is  simple  enough,  but  we  must  twist  and  turn 
to-night.  It  has  been  a  flood  tide,  and  there  are 
great  pools  left  here  and  there,  pools  that  you 
have  never  seen  before." 

"But  how  do  you  know?"  Jeanne  asked,  in 
amazement.     "  I  can  see  nothing." 

Her  guide  laughed  contemptuously. 

"  I  can  see  and  I  can  feel,"  she  said.  "  It  is  an 
instinct  with  me  to  walk  dry-footed  here.  To  the 
right  now  —  so." 

'  Stand  still  for  a  moment,"  Jeanne  pleaded. 
"  The  wind  takes  my  breath." 

'  You  have  too  many  clothes  on,"  Kate  said 
contemptuously.  "  One  should  not  wear  skirts  and 
petticoats  and  laces  here." 

"  If  you  would  leave  my  clothes  alone  and  tell 
me  where  you  are  going,"  Jeanne  declared,  a  little 
tartly,  "  it  would  be  more  reasonable." 

The  girl  laughed.  She  thrust  her  arm  through 
her  companion's  and  drew  her  on. 


318     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

"  Don't  be  angry,"  she  said.  "  It  is  quite  easy 
now  to  find  our  way.  There  is  room  for  us 
to  walk  like  this.  Can  you  hear  what  I  say  to 
you?" 

"  I  can  hear,"  Jeanne  answered,  raising  her 
voice,  "  but  it  is  getting  more  difficult  all  the  time. 
Is  that  the  sea?  " 

"Yes!"  Kate  answered.  "Can't  you  feel  the 
spray  on  your  cheeks?  The  wind  is  blowing  it 
high  up  above  the  beach.  Let  me  go  first  again. 
There  is  an  inlet  here.     Be  careful." 

They  came  to  a  full  stop  before  a  dark  arm  of 
salt  water.  They  skirted  the  side  and  crossed 
round  to  the  other  side. 

"  Be  careful,  now,"  Kate  said.     "  This  way." 

They  turned  inland.  In  a  few  minutes  her 
guide  stopped  short. 

"  Turn  on  your  torch,"  she  said.  "  There  ought 
to  be  a  wall  close  here." 

Jeanne  did  as  she  was  bid,  and  gave  a  little 
stifled  cry. 

"  Why,  we  are  close  to  the  Red  Hall !  "  she  said. 
Kate  nodded. 

"  A  little  way  farther  up  there  is  a  gate,"  she 
said.     "  We  are  going  in  there." 

"  You  are  not  going  to  the  house  ? "  Jeanne 
asked,  in  terror. 

"  No,"  Kate  answered,  "  I  am  not  going  there ! 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     319 

Follow  me,  and  don't  talk  more  than  you  can  help. 
The  wind  is  going  down." 

"  But  it  is  the  middle  of  the  night,"  Jeanne  said. 
"  No  one  will  be  astir." 

"  One  cannot  tell,"  Kate  answered  slowly.  "  It 
is  in  my  mind  that  there  have  been  strange  doings 
here,  and  I  know  well  that  there  is  a  man  who 
watches  this  place  by  day  and  by  night.  He  has 
discovered  nothing,  but  it  is  because  he  has  not 
known  where  to  look." 

"  What  do  you  mean?  "  Jeanne  asked  hoarsely. 

"  Wait!  "  her  companion  said. 

They  passed  through  the  wooden  gate.  They 
were  now  in  a  little  weedy  plantation  of  under- 
sized trees.  The  ground  was  full  of  rabbit  holes, 
and  Jeanne  stumbled  more  than  once. 

"How  much  farther?"  she  asked.  "  WTe  are 
getting  toward  the  house." 

11  Not  yet,"  Kate  answered.  "  There  are  the 
gardens  first,  but  we  are  not  going  there.  Wait 
a  moment." 

She  felt  for  one  of  the  trees,  and  passed  her 
hand  carefully  round  its  trunk.  Then  she  took  a 
few  steps  forward  and  stopped  short. 

11  Wait !"  she  said. 

She  lay  flat  down  upon  the  grass  and  was  silent 
for  several  minutes.  Then  she  whispered  to 
Jeanne. 


320     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

"  Don't  turn  on  your  torch,"  she  said.  "  Lie 
down  here  by  my  side,  put  your  ear  to  the  ground, 
and  tell  me  whether  you  can  hear  anything." 

Jeanne  obeyed  her  breathlessly.  At  first  she 
could  hear  nothing.  Her  own  heart  was  beating 
fast,  and  the  boughs  of  the  trees  above  them  were 
creaking  and  groaning  in  the  wind.  Presently, 
however,  she  gave  a  little  cry.  From  somewhere 
underground  it  seemed  to  her  that  she  could  hear 
a  faint  hammering. 

"  What  is  it?  "  she  asked. 

Kate  sat  up. 

"  There  is  no  animal,"  she  said,  "  which  makes 
a  noise  like  that.  It  is  somewhere  there  under- 
ground. It  seems  to  me  that  it  is  some  one  who 
is  trying  to  get  out." 

"  Some  one  underground?  "  Jeanne  repeated. 

Kate  leaned  over  and  whispered  in  her  ear. 

"  There  is  a  passage  underneath  here,"  she  said, 
"  which  goes  from  the  Hall  to  the  cliffs,  and  a 
room,  or  rather  a  vault." 

"  I  know,"  Jeanne  declared  suddenly.  "  Mr. 
De  la  Borne  showed  it  to  us.  It  was  the  way  the 
smugglers  used  to  bring  their  goods  up  to  the  cel- 
lars of  the  Red  Hall." 

"  We  are  just  above  the  room  here,"  Kate  said 
slowly,  "  and  I  fancy  that  there  is  some  one  there." 

A  sudden  light  broke  in  upon  Jeanne. 


JEANNE    OF    THE    MARSHES     321 

"  You  think  that  it  is  Lord  Engleton !  "  she  de- 
clared. 

"Why  not?"  Kate  answered.  "Listen  again, 
with  your  ear  close  to  the  ground.  Last  night  I 
was  almost  sure  that  I  heard  him  call  for  help." 

Jeanne  did  as  she  was  told,  and  her  face  grew 
white  as  death.  Distinctly  between  the  strokes  she 
heard  the  sound  of  a  man  moaning! 


CHAPTER   XIV 

Once  more  the  two  men  sat  over  the  remnants 
of  their  evening  meal.  This  time  the  deterioration 
in  their  own  appearance  seemed  to  have  spread 
itself  to  their  surroundings.  The  table  was  ill-laid, 
there  were  no  flowers,  an  empty  bottle  of  wine  and 
several  decanters  remained  where  they  had  been 
set.  There  was  every  indication  that  however  little 
the  two  might  have  eaten,  they  had  been  drinking 
heavily.  Yet  they  were  both  pale.  Cecil's  face 
even  was  ghastly,  and  the  hand  which  played  nerv- 
ously with  the  tablecloth  shook  all  the  time. 

"  Forrest,"  he  said  abruptly,  "  it  is  a  mistake  to 
clear  out  all  the  servants  like  this.  Not  only  have 
we  had  to  eat  a  filthy  dinner,  but  it's  enough  to 
make  people  suspicious,  eh?  Don't  you  think  so? 
Don't  you  think  afterwards  that  they  may  wonder 
why  we  did  it?  " 

"  No !  "  Forrest  answered,  with  something  that 
was  almost  like  a  snarl.  "  No,  I  don't!  Shut  up, 
and  don't  be  such  an  infernal  young  fooll  We 
couldn't  have  town  servants  spying  and  whispering 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     323 

about  the  place.  I  caught  that  London  butler  of 
yours  hanging  around  the  library  this  afternoon  as 
though  he  were  looking  for  something.  They  were 
a  d — d  careless  lot,  anyhow,  with  no  mistress  or 
housekeeper  to  look  after  them,  and  they're  better 
gone.    Who  is  there  left  exactly  now?  ' 

"  There's  a  kitchen-maid,  who  cooked  this 
wretched  mess,"  Cecil  answered,  "  and  another 
under  her  from  the  village,  who  seems  half  an 
idiot.  There  is  no  one  else  except  Pawles,  a  man 
who  comes  in  from  the  stables  to  do  the  rough 
work  and  pump  the  water  up  for  the  bath.  We 
are  practically  alone  in  the  house." 

"  Thank  Heaven  it's  our  last  night,"  Forrest 
answered. 

"  You  really  mean,  then,"  Cecil  asked,  in  a 
hoarse  whisper,  "  to  finish  this  now?  " 

"  I  mean  that  we  are  going  to,"  Forrest  an- 
swered. "  You  know  I'm  half  afraid  of  you. 
Sometimes  you're  such  a  rotten  coward.  If  ever 
I  thought  you  looked  as  though  you  were  going 
back  on  me,  I'd  get  even  with  you,  mind  that." 

"Don't  talk  like  a  fool!"  Cecil  answered. 
"  What  we  do,  we  do  together,  of  course,  only  my 
nerves  aren't  strong,  you  know.  I  can't  bear  the 
thought  of  the  end  of  it." 

"  Whatever  happens  to  him,"  Forrest  said, 
"  he's  asking  for  it.    He  has  an  easy  chance  to  get 


324     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

back  to  his  friends.  It  is  brutal  obstinacy  if  he 
makes  us  end  it  differently.  You're  only  a  boy, 
but  I've  lived  a  good  many  years,  and  I  tell  you 
that  if  you  don't  look  out  for  yourself  and  make 
yourself  safe,  there  are  always  plenty  of  people, 
especially  those  who  call  themselves  your  friends, 
who  are  ready  and  waiting  to  kick  you  down  into 
Hell.  I  am  going  to  have  something  more  to 
drink.  Nothing  seems  to  make  any  difference  to 
me  to-night.  I  can't  even  get  excited,  although  we 
must  have  drunk  a  bottle  of  wine  each.  We'll  have 
some  brandy.    Here  goes  !  " 

He  filled  a  wine-glass  and  passed  the  bottle  to 
Cecil. 

'  You're  about  in  the  same  state,"  he  remarked, 
looking  at  him  keenly.  "  Why  the  devil  is  it  that 
when  one  doesn't  require  it,  wine  will  go  to  the 
head  too  quickly,  and  when  one  wants  to  use  it  to 
borrow  a  little  courage  and  a  little  forgetfulness, 
the  stuff  goes  down  like  water.  Drink,  Cecil,  a 
wine-glass  of  it.     Drink  it  off,  like  this." 

Forrest  drained  his  wine-glass  and  set  it  down. 
Then  he  rose  to  his  feet.  His  cheeks  were  still  col- 
ourless, but  there  was  an  added  glitter  in  his  eyes. 

"  Come,  young  man,"  he  said,  "  you  have  only 
to  fancy  that  you  are  one  of  your  own  ancestors. 
I  fancy  those  dark-looking  ruffians,  who  scowl 
down  on  us  from  the  walls  there,  would  not  have 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     325 

thought  so  much  of  flinging  an  enemy  into  the  sea. 
It  is  a  wise  man  who  wrote  that  self-preservation 
was  the  first  law  of  nature.  Come,  Cecil,  remem- 
ber that.  It  is  the  first  law  of  nature  that  we  are 
obeying.  Ring  the  bell  first,  and  see  that  there  are 
no  servants  about  the  place." 

Cecil  obeyed,  ringing  the  bell  once  or  twice.  No 
one  came.  They  stepped  out  into  the  hall.  The 
emptiness  of  the  house  seemed  almost  apparent. 
There  was  not  a  sound  anywhere. 

"  The  servants'  wing  is  right  over  the  stables,  a 
long  way  off,"  Cecil  remarked.  "  They  could 
never  hear  a  bell  there  that  rang  from  any  of  the 
living-rooms." 

Forrest  nodded. 

'  So  much  the  better,"  he  said.  "  Come  along 
to  the  library.    I  have  everything  ready  there." 

They  crossed  the  hall  and  entered  the  room  to 
which  Forrest  pointed.  Their  footsteps  seemed  to 
awake  echoes  upon  the  stone  floor.  The  hall,  too, 
was  all  unlit  save  for  the  lamp  which  Forrest  was 
carrying.  Cecil  peered  nervously  about  into  the 
shadows. 

"  It's  a  ghostly  house  this  of  yours,"  Forrest 
said  grumblingly,  as  they  closed  the  door  behind 
them.  "  I  shall  be  thankful  to  get  back  to  my 
rooms  in  town  and  walk  down  Piccadilly  once 
more.     What's  that  outside?  " 


326     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 


u 


The  wind,"   Cecil  answered.     "  I  thought  it 
was  going  to  be  a  rough  night." 

The  window  had  been  left  open  at  the  top,  and 
the  roar  of  the  wind  across  the  open  places  came 
into  the  room  like  muffled  thunder.  The  lamp 
which  Forrest  carried  was  blown  out,  and  the  two 
men  were  left  in  darkness. 

"  Shut  the  window,  for  Heaven's  sake,  man !  ' 
Forrest  ordered  sharply.     "  Here!  " 

He  took  an  electric  torch  from  his  pocket,  and 
both  men  drew  a  little  breath  of  relief  as  the  light 
flashed  out.  Cecil  climbed  on  to  a  chair  and  closed 
the  window.     Forrest  glanced  at  the  clock. 

"  It's  quite  late  enough,"  he  said.  "  It  should 
be  high  tide  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  and  the  sea  in 
that  little  cove  of  yours  is  twenty  feet  deep.  Come 
along  and  work  this  door." 

"  Have  you  got  everything?  "  Cecil  asked  nerv- 
ously. 

"  I  have  the  chloroform,"  Forrest  answered, 
touching  a  small  bottle  in  his  waistcoat  pocket. 
"  We  don't  need  anything  else.  He  hasn't  the 
strength  of  a  rabbit,  and  you  and  I  can  carry  him 
down  the  passage.  If  he  struggles  there's  no  one 
to  hear  him." 

Cecil  pushed  his  way  against  the  panels  and 
opened  the  clumsy  door.  They  groped  their  way 
down  the  passage. 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     327 

"  Faugh!  "  Forrest  exclaimed.  "  What  smells! 
Cecil,"  he  added,  "  I  suppose  half  the  village  know 
about  this  place,  don't  they?  " 

"  They  know  that  it  has  been  here  always,*' 
Cecil  answered,  "  but  they  most  of  them  think  that 
it  is  blocked  up  now.  We  did  try  to,  Andrew  and 
I,  but  the  masonry  gave  way.  These  lumps  on  the 
floor  are  the  remains  of  our  work.  Keep  your 
torch  down.    You'll  fall  over  them." 

Forrest  stopped  short.  Curiously  enough,  it  was 
he  now  who  seemed  the  more  terrified.  The  wind 
and  the  thunder  of  the  sea  together  seemed  to 
reach  them  through  the  walls  of  earth  in  a  strange 
monotonous  roar,  sometimes  shriller  as  the  wind 
triumphed,  sometimes  deep  and  low  so  that  the 
very  ground  beneath  their  feet  vibrated  as  the 
sea  came  thundering  up  into  the  cove.  Cecil,  who 
was  more  used  to  such  noises,  heard  them  un- 
moved. 

"  If  my  people  had  left  me  such  a  dog's  hole  as 
this,"  Forrest  declared  viciously,  "  I'd  have  buried 
them  in  it  and  blown  it  up  to  the  skies.  It's  only 
fit  for  ghosts." 

The  very  weakening  of  the  other  man  seemed 
for  the  moment  to  give  Cecil  added  courage.  He 
laughed  hoarsely. 

"  There  are  worse  things  to  fear,"  he  muttered, 
"  than  this.     Hold  hard,   Forrest.     Here  is  the 


328    JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

door.     I'll  undo  the  padlock.     You  stand  by  in 
case  he  makes  a  rush." 

But  there  was  no  rush  about  Engleton.  He  was 
lying  on  his  back,  stretched  on  a  rough  mattress 
at  the  farther  end  of  the  room,  moaning  slightly. 
The  two  men  exchanged  quick  glances. 

"  We  are  not  going  to  have  much  trouble,"  For- 
rest muttered.  "  What  a  beastly  atmosphere !  No 
wonder  he's  knocked  up." 

Cecil,  however,  looked  about  suspiciously. 
'  Don't  you  notice,"  he  whispered,  "  that  we  can 
hear  the  wind  much  plainer  here  than  in  the  pas- 
sage? I  believe  I  can  feel  a  current  of  fresh  air, 
too.  I  wonder  if  he's  been  trying  to  cut  his  way 
through  to  the  air-hole.     It's  only  a  few  feet  up." 

He  flashed  his  light  upon  the  wall  near  where 
Engleton  was  lying.  Then  he  turned  significantly 
to  Forrest. 

"  See,"  he  said,  "  he  has  cut  steps  in  the  wall  and 
tried  to  make  an  opening  above.  He  must  have 
guessed  where  the  ventilating  pipe  was.  I  wonder 
what  he  did  it  with." 

They  crossed  the  room.  The  man  on  the  couch 
opened  his  eyes  and  looked  at  them  dully. 

"  So  you've  been  improving  the  shining  hour, 
eh?'  Forrest  remarked,  pointing  to  the  rough 
steps.  "  We  shall  have  to  find  what  you  did  it 
with.    Hidden  under  the  mattress,  I  suppose." 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     329 

He  stooped  down,  and  Engleton  flew  at  his 
throat  with  all  the  fury  of  a  wild  cat.  Forrest  was 
taken  aback  for  a  moment,  but  the  effort  was  only 
a  brief  one.  Engleton's  strength  seemed  to  pass 
away  even  before  he  had  concluded  his  attack. 
He  sank  back  and  collapsed  upon  the  floor  at 
a  touch. 

"  You  brutes  !  "  he  muttered. 

Cecil  lifted  the  mattress.  There  was  a  large  flat 
stone,  sharp-edged  and  coated  with  mud,  lying  un- 
derneath. 

"  I  thought  so,"  he  whispered.  ;'  Jove,  he's 
gone  a  long  way  with  it,  too !  "  he  muttered,  look- 
ing upward.  "  Another  foot  or  so  and  he  would 
have  been  outside.  I  wonder  the  place  didn't 
collapse." 

Engleton  dragged  himself  a  little  way  back.  He 
remained  upon  the  floor,  but  there  was  support  for 
his  back  now  against  the  wall. 

"  Well,"  he  said,  "  what  is  it  this  evening?  " 

"  The  end,"  Forrest  answered  shortly. 

Engleton  did  not  flinch.  Of  the  three  men,  al- 
though his  physical  condition  was  the  worst,  he 
seemed  the  most  at  his  ease. 

"  The  end,"  he  remarked.  "  Well,  I  don't  be- 
lieve it.  I  don't  believe  you  have  either  of  you  the 
pluck  to  go  through  life  with  the  fear  of  the  rope 
round  your  neck  every  minute.    But  if  I  am  indeed 


330     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

a  condemned  man.  I  ought  to  have  my  privi- 
leges. Give  me  a  cigarette,  one  of  you,  for  God's 
sake." 

Forrest  took  out  his  gold  case  and  threw  him  a 
couple  of  cigarettes.  Then  he  struck  a  match  and 
passed  it  over. 

"  Smoke,  by  all  means,"  he  said.  '  Listen!  In 
five  minutes  we  are  going  to  throw  you  from  the 
seaward  end  of  this  place,  down  into  the  cove  or 
creek,  or  whatever  they  call  it.  It  is  high  tide,  and 
the  sea  there  is  twenty  feet  deep.  As  for  swim- 
ming, you  evidently  haven't  the  strength  of  a  cat, 
and  there  is  no  breathing  man  could  swim  against 
the  current  far  enough  to  reach  any  place  where  he 
could  climb  out.  But  to  avoid  even  that  risk,  we 
are  going  to  give  you  a  little  chloroform  first.  It 
will  make  things  easier  for  you,  and  we  shall  not  be 
distressed  by  your  shrieks." 

"  An  amiable  programme,"  Engleton  muttered. 
"  I  am  quite  ready  for  it." 

"  Then  I  don't  think  we  need  waste  words," 
Forrest  said  slowly.  "  You  have  made  up  your 
mind,  I  suppose,  that  you  do  not  care  about  life. 
Remember  that  it  is  not  we  who  are  your  execu- 
tioners.   You  have  an  easy  choice." 

"  If  you  mean,"  Engleton  said,  "  will  I  purchase 
my  liberty  by  letting  you  two  blackguards  off  free, 
for  this  and  for  your  dirty  card-sharping,  I  say  no ! 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     331 

I  will  take  my  chances  of  life  to  the  last  second. 
Afterwards  I  shall  know  that  I  am  revenged.  Men 
don't  go  happily  through  life  with  the  little  black 
devil  sitting  on  their  shoulders." 

"  We'll  take  our  risk,"  Forrest  said  thickly. 
"You  have  chosen,  then?  This  is  your  last 
chance." 

"  Absolutely!  "  Engleton  answered. 

Forrest  took  out  the  phial  from  his  pocket 
and  held  his  handkerchief  on  the  palm  of  his 
hand. 

"  Open  the  door,  will  you,  Cecil,"  he  said,  "  so 
that  we  can  carry  him  out." 

Cecil  opened  it,  and  came  slowly  back  to  where 
Forrest  was  counting  the  drops  which  fell  from 
the  bottle  on  to  his  handkerchief.  Then  he  sud- 
denly came  to  a  standstill.  Forrest,  too,  paused  in 
his  task  and  looked  up.  He  gave  a  nervous  start, 
and  the  bottle  fell  from  his  fingers. 

11  What  in  God's  name  was  that?  "  he  asked. 

It  came  to  them  faintly  down  the  long  passage, 
but  it  was  nevertheless  alarming  enough.  The 
hoarse  clanging  of  a  bell,  pulled  by  impetuous 
fingers.  Cecil  and  Forrest  stared  at  one  another 
for  a  moment  with  dilated  eyes. 

"  Can't  you  speak,  you  d — d  young  fool?  "  For- 
rest asked.    "  What  bell  is  that?  " 

"  It  is  the  front-door  bell  of  the   Red  Hall," 


332     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

Cecil  answered,  in  a  voice  which  he  scarcely  rec- 
ognized as  his  own.     "  There  it  goes  again." 

They  stood  perfectly  silent  and  listened  to  it, 
listened  until  its  echoes  died  away. 


CHAPTER    XV 

For  the  fourth  time  the  bell  rang.  The  two 
men  had  now  retraced  their  steps.  Cecil,  who 
had  been  standing  in  the  hall  within  a  few  feet  of 
the  closed  door,  started  away  as  though  he  had 
received  some  sort  of  shock.  Forrest,  who  was 
lurking  back  in  the  shadows,  cursed  him  for  a  timid 
fool. 

"  Open  the  door,  man,"  he  whispered.  "  Don't 
stand  fumbling  there.  Remember  you  are  angry 
at  being  disturbed.  Send  them  away,  whoever  they 
are.  Look  sharp!  They  are  going  to  ring  again. 
Can't  you  hear  that  beastly  bell-wire  quivering?  ' 

Cecil  set  his  teeth,  turned  the  huge  key,  and 
pulled  back  the  heavy  door.  He  gave  a  little  gasp 
of  astonishment.  It  was  a  woman  who  stood  there. 
He  held  out  his  electric  torch  and  stepped  back 
with  a  sharp  exclamation. 

"  Kate !  "  he  cried.  "  What  on  earth  are  you 
doing  here  at  this  hour?  What  do  you  mean  by 
ringing  the  bell  like  that?  " 

The  girl  stepped  into  the  hall. 

11  Close  the  door,"  she  said.     "  The  wind  will 


334     JEANNE    OF    THE    MARSHES 

blow  the  pictures  off  the  walls,  and  I  can  scarcely 
hear  you  speak." 

Cecil  obeyed  at  once. 

11  Light  a  lamp,"  she  said.  "  It  is  not  fair  that 
you  should  have  all  the  light.  I  want  to  see  your 
face  too." 

"  But  Kate,"  Cecil  interrupted,  "  why  did  you 
come  like  this?    Why  did  you  not  —  " 

She  interrupted. 

"  Never  mind,"  she  answered  sternly.  "  Per- 
haps I  did  not  come  to  see  you  at  all.  Light  the 
lamp.     There  is  something  I  have  to  say  to  you." 

Forrest  stepped  forward  from  the  obscurity  and 
struck  a  match.  The  girl  showed  no  signs  of  fear 
at  his  coming.  As  the  lamp  grew  brighter  she 
looked  at  him  steadfastly. 

"  So  this  is  the  reason  we  are  waked  up  in  the 
middle  of  the  night,"  Forrest  remarked,  with  a 
smile  which  somehow  or  other  seemed  to  lose  its 
suggestiveness.  "  A  little  affair  of  this  sort,  eh, 
Mr.  Cecil?  Why  don't  you  teach  the  young  lady 
a  simpler  way  of  summoning  you  than  by  that 
infernal  bell?  " 

Still  Kate  did  not  reply.  She  was  standing  with 
her  back  to  the  oak  table  in  the  centre  of  the  hall, 
and  the  men,  who  were  both  watching  her  covertly, 
were  conscious  of  a  certain  significance  in  her  atti- 
tude.   Her  black  hair  was  tossed  all  over  her  face; 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     335 

from  its  tangled  web  her  eyes  seemed  to  gleam 
with  a  steady  inimical  gaze.  Her  dress  of  dark 
red  stuff  was  splashed  in  places  with  the  salt  water, 
and  her  feet  were  soaking.  With  her  left  hand  she 
clasped  the  table;  her  right  seemed  hidden  in  the 
folds  of  her  skirt. 

"What  do  you  want,  Kate?"  Cecil  asked  at 
last.  "  What  do  you  mean  by  coming  here  like 
this?  If  you  want  to  see  me  you  know  how,  with- 
out arousing  the  whole  household  at  this  time  of 
night." 

"  You  are  not  fool  enough,"  Kate  said  calmly, 
"  to  imagine  that  I  came  to-night  to  listen  to  your 
lies.  I  came  to  know  whom  it  is  that  you  are 
keeping  hidden  away  in  the  smugglers'  room." 

Neither  man  answered.  They  looked  at  one 
another,  and  Cecil's  face  grew  once  more  as  pale 
as  death. 

"  What  do  you  mean?  "  he  exclaimed.  "  What 
rubbish  is  this  you  are  talking,  Kate?"  he  added, 
in  a  sharper  tone.  "  There  is  no  one  there  that  I 
know  of." 

"  You  lie,"  she  answered  calmly.  "  You  lie,  as 
you  always  do  whenever  it  answers  your  purpose. 
Only  an  hour  ago  I  lay  upon  the  turf  in  the  planta- 
tion there,  and  I  heard  a  man  moaning  down  in 
the  store-room.  Now  tell  me  the  truth,  Cecil  de 
la  Borne.     I  do  not  wish  to  bring  any  harm  upon 


336     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

you,  although  God  knows  you  deserve  it,  but  if  you 
do  not  bring  me  the  man  whom  you  have  down 
there,  and  set  him  free  before  my  eyes  at  once,  I'll 
bring  half  the  village  up  to  the  mound  there  and 
dig  him  out." 

Forrest  stepped  forward.  His  manner  was 
suave  and  his  tone  was  smooth,  but  there  was  a 
dangerous  glitter  in  his  eyes. 

"  This  is  rather  absurd,  Cecil,"  he  said.  "  I  do 
not  know  whom  this  young  lady  is,  but  I  feel  sure 
that  she  will  listen  to  reason.  There  is  no  one 
down  in  the  smugglers'  store-room.  If  she  heard 
anything,  it  was  probably  the  rabbits." 

"  Lies !  "  Kate  answered  calmly.  "  You  are  an- 
other of  the  breed;  I  can  see  it  in  your  face.  I 
would  not  trust  the  word  of  either  of  you." 

Forrest  shrugged  his  shoulders.  He  glanced 
towards  Cecil  with  a  slight  uplifting  of  the  eye- 
brows. 

"  Your  friend,  my  dear  Cecil,"  he  remarked, 
"  is  like  most  of  her  sex,  a  trifle  unreasonable. 
However,  since  she  says  that  she  will  believe  no 
evidence  save  the  evidence  of  her  eyes,  show  her 
the  smugglers'  room.  It  would  be  a  quaint  excur- 
sion to  take  at  this  time  of  night,  but  I  will  go 
with  you  for  the  sake  of  the  proprieties,"  he  added, 
with  a  little  laugh. 

Cecil  looked  at  him  for  a  moment  steadily,  and 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     337 

then  turned  away.  There  was  fear  now  upon  his 
face,  a  new  fear.  What  was  this  thing  which  For- 
rest could  propose? 

"  She  can  come  if  she  insists,"  he  said  slowly, 
"  but  the  place  has  not  been  opened  for  a  long 
time.  The  air  is  bad.  It  really  is  not  fit  for  any 
human  being." 

The  girl  faced  them  both  without  shrinking. 

"  Perhaps  you  think  that  I  should  be  afraid," 
she  answered.  "  Perhaps  you  think  that  when  I 
am  there  it  would  be  very  easy  to  dispose  of  me, 
so  that  I  shall  ask  no  more  inconvenient  questions. 
Never  mind.  I  am  not  afraid.  I  will  go  with 
you." 

Cecil  shrugged  his  shoulders  as  he  led  the  way 
across  the  hall. 

"  There  is  nothing  to  fear,"  he  said,  "  except  the 
bad  air  and  the  ghosts  of  smugglers,  if  you  are 
superstitious  enough  to  fear  them.  Only,  when 
you  are  perfectly  satisfied,  and  you  are  convinced 
that  your  errand^here  has  been  fruitless,  perhaps 
I  may  have  something  to  say." 

The  girl's  lips  parted.  Curiously  enough  there 
was  a  note  almost  of  real  merriment  in  the  laugh 
which  followed. 

"  I  am  not  very  brave,  my  dear  Cecil,"  she  said, 
"but  I  am  not  afraid  of  you.  I  think  that  one 
does  not  fear  the  things  that  one  understands  too 


338     JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

well,  and  you  I  do  understand  too  well,  much  too 
well." 

They  reached  the  empty  gun-room.  Cecil  threw 
open  the  hidden  door. 

"  Will  you  go  first  or  last?  "  he  said  to  the  girl. 
"  Choose  your  own  place." 

The  girl  laughed. 

"  The  door  seemed  to  open  easily,"  she  re- 
marked, "  considering  that  it  has  not  been  used 
for  so  long." 

"  Never  mind  about  that,"  Cecil  said  sharply. 
"  Are  you  coming  with  us?  " 

"  I  am  coming,"  Kate  answered  composedly, 
"  and  I  will  walk  last." 

"  As  you  please,"  Cecil  answered.  "  Come, 
Forrest,  you  may  as  well  see  this  thing  through 
with  me." 

As  they  stumbled  along  the  narrow  way,  Cecil 
whispered  in  Forrest's  ear. 

"  What  are  we  going  to  do  with  her?  " 

"God  knows!"  Forrest  answered.  "Do  you 
suppose  that  any  one  knows  where  she  is?  Who 
is  she?  " 

'  One  of  the  village  girls,"  Cecil  answered,  "  an 
old  sweetheart  of  mine.  They  are  strange  people, 
and  have  few  friends.  I  doubt  whether  any  one 
knows  that  she  is  out  to-night." 

Forrest  passed  on. 


JEANNE    OF    THE    MARSHES     339 

"  If  we  are  going  to  put  our  necks  into  the 
halter,"  he  muttered,  "  a  little  extra  trouble  won't 
hurt  us." 

They  paused  before  the  door.  The  girl  was 
looking  at  the  padlock. 

"  A  new  padlock,  I  see,"  she  remarked.  '  Lis- 
ten!  " 

They  all  listened,  and  now  there  was  no  doubt 
about  it.  From  inside  the  room  they  could  hear 
the  sound  of  a  man,  half  singing,  half  moaning. 

"Are  those  rabbits?'  the  girl  asked,  leaning 
forward,  so  that  her  eyes  seemed  to  gleam  like  live 
coal  through  the  darkness.  "  Cecil,  you  are  being 
made  a  fool  of  by  this  man.  I  don't  wish  you  any 
harm.  Do  the  right  thing  now,  and  I'll  stick  by 
you.  Let  this  man  free,  whoever  he  is.  Don't 
listen  to  what  he  tells  you,"  she  added,  pointing 
toward  Forrest. 

Cecil  hesitated.  Forrest,  who  was  watching  him 
closely,  could  not  tell  whether  that  hesitation  was 
genuine  or  only  a  feint. 

"  It  was  only  a  joke,  this,  Kate,"  he  muttered. 
"  It  was  a  joke  which  we  have  carried  a  little  too 
far.  Yes,  you  shall  help  me  if  you  will.  I  have 
had  enough  of  it.  Go  inside  and  see  for  yourself 
who  is  there." 

Cecil  threw  open  the  door  and  Kate  stepped 
boldly  inside.     Forrest  entered  last  and  remained 


340     JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES 

near  the  threshold.     Engleton  started  to  his  feet 
when  he  saw  a  third  person. 

11  We  have  brought  you  a  visitor,"  Forrest  cried 
out.  "  You  have  complained  of  being  lonely.  You 
will  not  be  lonely  any  longer." 

Kate  turned  toward  him. 

"What  do  you  mean?"  she  said.  "We  are 
going  to  leave  here  together,  that  man  and  myself, 
within  the  next  few  minutes." 

'  You  lie !  "  Forrest  answered  fiercely.  "  You 
have  thrust  yourself  into  a  matter  which  does  not 
concern  you,  and  you  are  going  to  take  the  conse- 
quences." 

"  And  what  might  they  be?  "  Kate  asked  slowly. 

"  They  rest  with  him,"  Forrest  answered,  point- 
ing toward  Engleton.  "  There  is  a  man  there 
who  was  our  friend  until  a  few  days  ago.  He 
dared  to  accuse  us  of  cheating  at  cards,  and  if  we 
let  him  go  he  will  ruin  us  both.  We  are  doing 
what  any  reasonable  men  must  do.  We  are  seek- 
ing to  preserve  ourselves.  We  have  kept  him  here 
a  prisoner,  but  he  could  have  gained  his  freedom 
on  any  day  by  simply  promising  to  hold  his  peace. 
He  has  declined,  and  the  time  has  come  when  we 
can  leave  him  no  more.  To-night,  if  he  is  obsti- 
nate, we  are  going  to  throw  him  into  the  sea." 

"  And  what  about  me?  "  Kate  asked. 

"  You  are  going  with  him,"  Forrest  answered. 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES    341 

"  If  he  is  obstinate  fool  enough  to  chuck  your  life 
away  and  his,  he  must  do  it.  Only  he  had  better 
remember  this,"  he  added,  looking  across  at  En- 
gleton,  "  it  will  mean  two  lives  now,  and  not  one." 

Engleton  rose  to  his  feet  slowly. 

"  Who  is  she?  "  he  asked,  pointing  to  the  girl. 

"  I  am  Kate  Caynsard,  one  of  the  village  peo- 
ple here,"  she  answered.  "  I  heard  you  working 
to-night  from  outside.  You  heard  me  shout 
back?" 

He  nodded. 

"Yes!  "he  said.    "  I  know." 

"  I  will  tell  the  truth,"  the  girl  continued.  "  I 
was  fool  enough  once  to  come  here  to  meet  that 
man"  —  she  pointed  to  De  la  Borne  —  "that  is 
all  over.  But  one  night  I  was  restless,  and  I  came 
wandering  through  the  plantation  here.  It  was 
then  I  saw  from  the  other  end  that  the  place  had 
been  altered,  and  it  struck  me  to  listen  there  where 
the  air-shaft  is.  I  heard  voices,  and  the  next  day 
they  were  all  talking  about  the  disappearance  of 
Lord  Ronald  Engleton.  You,  I  suppose,"  she 
added,  "  are  Lord  Ronald." 

"  I  believe  I  was,"  he  answered,  with  a  little 
catch  in  his  throat.  "  God  knows  who  I  am  now ! 
I  give  it  up,  De  la  Borne.  If  you  are  going  to  send 
the  girl  after  me,  I  give  it  up.  I'll  sign  anything 
you  like.    Only  let  me  out  of  the  d — d  place !  " 


342    JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

A  flash  of  triumph  lit  up  Forrest's  face,  but  it 
lasted  only  for  a  second.  Kate  had  suddenly 
turned  upon  them,  and  was  standing  with  her  back 
to  the  wall.  The  hand  which  had  been  hidden  in 
the  folds  of  her  dress  so  long,  was  suddenly  out- 
stretched. There  was  a  roar  which  rang  through 
the  place  like  the  rattle  of  artillery,  the  smell  of 
gunpowder,  and  a  little  cloud  of  smoke.  Through 
it  they  could  see  her  face ;  her  lips  parted  in  a  smile, 
the  wild  disorder  of  her  hair,  her  sea-stained  gown, 
her  splendid  pose,  all  seemed  to  make  her  the  cen- 
tral figure  of  the  little  tableau. 

"  I  have  five  more  barrels,"  she  said.  "  I  fired 
that  one  to  let  you  know  that  I  was  in  earnest. 
Now  if  you  do  not  let  us  go  free,  and  without  con- 
ditions, it  will  be  you  who  will  stay  here  instead 
of  us,  only  you  will  stay  here  for  ever!  " 


CHAPTER   XVI 

The  smoke  cleared  slowly  away.  Engleton  had 
risen  to  his  feet,  the  light  of  a  new  hope  blazing 
in  his  eyes.  Forrest  and  Cecil  de  la  Borne  stood 
close  together  near  the  door,  which  still  stood  ajar. 
The  girl,  who  stood  with  her  back  to  the  wall,  saw 
their  involuntary  movement  towards  it,  and  her 
voice  rang  out  sharp  and  clear. 

"If  you  try  it  on  I  shoot!"  she  exclaimed. 
"  You  know  what  that  means,  Cecil.  A  pistol  isn't 
a  plaything  with  me." 

Cecil  looked  no  more  toward  the  door.  He  came 
instead  a  little  farther  into  the  room. 

"  My  dear  Kate,"  he  said,  "  we  are  willing  to 
admit,  Forrest  and  I,  that  we  are  beaten.  You  can 
do  exactly  what  you  like  with  us  except  leave  us 
here.  Our  little  joke  with  Engleton  is  at  an  end. 
Perhaps  we  carried  it  too  far.  If  so,  we  must  face 
the  penalty.  Take  him  away  if  you  like.  Person- 
ally I  do  not  find  this  place  attractive." 

Kate  lowered  her  revolver  and  turned  to  Engle- 
ton. 

"  Come  over  to  my  side,"  she  said.  "  We  are 
going  to  leave  this  place." 


344     JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES 

Engleton  staggered  towards  her.  He  had  al- 
ways been  thin,  but  he  seemed  to  have  lost  more 
flesh  in  the  last  few  days. 

"  For  God's  sake  let's  get  out!  "  he  said.  "  If 
I  don't  breathe  some  fresh  air  soon,  it  will  be  the 
end  of  me." 

"  In  any  order  you  please,"  Cecil  de  la  Borne 
said  smiling.  "  The  only  condition  I  make  is  that 
before  you  leave  the  place  altogether,  Kate,  I 
have  a  few  minutes'  conversation  with  you.  You 
can  hold  your  pistol  to  my  temple,  if  you  like, 
while  I  talk,  but  there  are  a  few  things  I  must 
say." 

"  Afterwards,  then,"  she  answered.  "  We  are 
going  first  out  of  the  place.  We  shall  turn  sea- 
wards and  wait  for  you.  When  you  have  come 
out,  you  will  hand  us  your  electric  torches  and  go 
on  in  front." 

"  You  are  quite  a  strategist,"  Forrest  remarked 
grimly.  "  Do  as  she  says,  Cecil.  The  sooner  we 
are  out  of  this,  the  better." 

Kate  passed  her  hand  through  Engleton's  arm. 

"  Come  along,"  she  said.  "  Lean  on  me  if  you 
are  not  feeling  well.  Do  not  be  afraid.  They 
will  not  dare  to  touch  us." 

Engleton  laughed  weakly,  but  with  the  remains 
of  the  contempt  with  which  he  had  always  treated 
his  jailers. 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     345 

"  Afraid  of  them  1  "  he  exclaimed  contemptu- 
ously. "  I  fancy  the  boot  has  been  on  the  other 
leg.  Who  you  are,  my  dear  young  lady,  I  do  not 
know,  but  upon  my  word  you  are  the  most  welcome 
companion  a  man  ever  had." 

The  pair  moved  toward  the  doorway.  Neither 
Forrest  nor  Cecil  de  la  Borne  made  any  effort  to 
prevent  their  passing  out.  Kate  turned  a  little  to 
the  right,  and  then  stood  with  the  revolver  clasped 
in  her  hand. 

"  Please  come  out  now,"  she  said.  You  will 
give  your  electric  torch  to  him." 

She  indicated  Engleton,  who  stretched  out  his 
hand.  Cecil  and  Forrest  obeyed  her  command  to 
the  letter.  Engleton  held  the  torch,  and  they  all 
four  made  their  way  along  the  noisome  passage. 
Forrest  turned  his  head  once  cautiously  toward  his 
companion's,  but  Cecil  shook  his  head. 

"  Wait,"  he  whispered  softly. 

The  thunder  of  the  sea  grew  less  and  less  dis- 
tinct. Before  them  shone  a  faint  glimmer  of  light. 
Soon  they  reached  the  three  steps  which  led  up 
into  the  gun-room.  Cecil  and  Forrest  climbed  up. 
Kate  and  Engleton  followed.  Cecil  carefully 
closed  the  door  behind  them. 

11  You  see,"  he  remarked,  "  we  are  reconciled  to 
our  defeat.  Let  us  sit  down  for  a  moment  and 
talk." 


346     JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

"  Open  the  window  and  give  me  some  brandy," 
Engleton  said. 

Kate  felt  him  suddenly  grow  heavy  upon  her 
arm. 

"  Bring  a  chair  quick,"  she  ordered.  "  He  is 
going  to  faint." 

She  bent  over  him,  alarmed  at  the  sudden  change 
in  his  face.  Her  attention  for  one  moment  was 
relaxed.  Then  she  felt  her  wrist  seized  in  a  grip 
of  iron.  The  revolver,  which  she  was  still  hold- 
ing, fell  to  the  ground,  and  Cecil  calmly  picked  it 
up  and  thrust  it  into  his  pocket. 

"  You  have  played  the  game  very  well,  Kate," 
he  said.    "  Now  I  think  it  is  our  turn." 

She  looked  at  him  indignantly,  but  without  any 
trace  of  fear. 

"  You  brute !  "  she  exclaimed.  "  Can't  you  see 
that  he  has  fainted?  Do  you  want  him  to  die 
here?" 

"  Not  in  the  least,"  Cecil  answered.  "  Here, 
Forrest,  you  take  care  of  this,"  he  added,  passing 
the  revolver  over  to  him.  "  I'll  look  after  Engle- 
ton." 

He  led  him  to  an  easy-chair  close  to  the  window. 
He  opened  it  a  few  inches,  and  a  current  of  strong 
fresh  air  came  sweeping  in.  Then  he  poured  some 
brandy  into  a  glass  and  gave  it  to  Kate. 

"  Let  him  sip  this,"  he  said.     "  Keep  his  head 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     347 

back.  That's  right.  We  will  call  a  truce  for  a 
few  moments.  I  am  going  to  talk  with  my 
friend." 

He  turned  away,  and  Kate,  with  a  sudden  move- 
ment, sprang  toward  the  fireplace  and  pulled  the 
bell.  Cecil  looked  around  and  smiled  contemptu- 
ously. 

"  It  is  well  thought  of,"  he  remarked,  "  but  un- 
fortunately there  is  not  a  servant  in  the  house.  Go 
on  ringing  it,  if  you  like.  All  that  it  can  awake 
are  the  echoes." 

Kate  dropped  the  rope  and  turned  back  towards 
Engleton.  The  colour  was  coming  slowly  back  to 
his  cheeks.  With  an  effort  he  kept  from  altogether 
losing  consciousness. 

"  I  am  not  going  to  faint,"  he  said  in  a  low  tone. 
"  I  will  not.    Tell  me,  they  have  the  pistol?  " 

"  Yes,"  Kate  answered,  "  but  don't  be  afraid.  I 
am  not  going  back  there  again,  nor  shall  they  take 
you." 

He  pressed  her  hand. 

"  You  are  a  plucky  girl,"  he  muttered.  "  Stick 
to  me  now  and  I'll  never  forget  it.  I've  held  out 
so  long  that  I'm  d — d  if  I  let  them  off  their  pun- 
ishment now." 

Cecil  came  slowly  across  the  room. 

11  Feeling  better,  Engleton?  "  he  asked. 

Engleton  turned  his  head. 


348     JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES 

"  Yes,"  he  answered,  "  I  am  well  enough.  What 
of  it?" 

11  We'd  better  have  an  understanding,"  Cecil 
said. 

"  Have  it,  then,  and  be  d — d  to  you !  "  Engle- 
ton  answered.  "  You  won't  get  me  alive  down 
into  that  place  again.  If  you  are  going  to  try, 
try." 

"  Come,"  Cecil  said,  "  there  is  no  need  to  talk 
like  that.  Why  not  pass  your  word  to  treat  this 
little  matter  as  a  joke?  It's  the  simplest  way.  Go 
up  to  your  room,  change  your  clothes  and  shave, 
have  a  drink  with  us,  and  take  the  morning  train 
to  town.  It's  not  worth  while  risking  your  life  for 
the  sake  of  a  little  bit  of  revenge  on  us  for  having 
gone  too  far.  I  admit  that  we  were  wrong  in  keep- 
ing you  here.  You  terrified  us.  Forrest  has  more 
enemies  than  friends  and  I  am  unknown  in  London. 
If  you  went  to  the  club  with  your  story,  people 
would  believe  it.  We  shouldn't  have  a  chance. 
That  is  why  we  were  afraid  to  let  you  go  back. 
Forget  the  last  few  days  and  cry  quits." 

'  I'll  see  you  d — d  first,"  Engleton  answered. 

Cecil's  face  changed  a  little. 

"  Well,"  he  said,  "  I  have  made  you  a  fair  offer. 
If  you  refuse,  I  shall  leave  it  to  my  friend  Forrest 
to  deal  with  you.  You  may  not  find  him  so  easy 
as  I  have  been." 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     349 

Kate  stepped  for  a  moment  forward,  and  laid 
her  hand  on  Cecil's  shoulder. 

"  Mr.  De  la  Borne,"  she  said,  "  we  don't  want 
to  have  anything  to  say  to  your  friend.  We  trust 
him  less  than  you.    Open  the  door  and  let  us  out." 

"  Where  are  you  going  to?  "  Cecil  asked.  "  En- 
gleton  is  not  fit  to  walk  anywhere." 

"  I  am  going  to  take  him  back  home  with  me," 
Kate  answered.  "  Oh,  I  can  get  him  there  ali 
right.  I  am  not  afraid  of  that.  He  will  have 
plenty  of  strength  to  walk  away  from  this  place." 

"  It  is  impossible,  my  dear  Kate,"  Cecil  an- 
swered. "  Take  my  advice.  Leave  him  to  us. 
We  will  deal  with  him  reasonably  enough.  Kate, 
listen." 

He  passed  his  arm  through  hers  and  drew  her 
a  little  on  one  side. 

"  Kate,"  he  said,  "  I'm  afraid  I  haven't  be- 
haved exactly  well  to  you.  I  got  up  in  London 
amongst  a  lot  of  people  who  seemed  to  look  at 
things  so  differently,  and  there  were  distractions, 
and  I'm  afraid  that  I  forgot  some  of  my  promises. 
But  I  have  never  forgotten  you.  Why  do  you  take 
the  part  of  that  miserable  creature  over  there  ?  He 
is  just  a  young  simpleton,  who,  because  he  was  half 
drunk,  dared  to  accuse  us  of  cheating.  We  were 
obliged  to  keep  him  shut  up  until  he  took  it  back. 


350     JEANNE   OF   THE    MARSHES 

Leave  him  to  us.  He  shall  come  to  no  harm.  I 
give  you  my  word,  and  I  will  never  forget  it." 

Kate  looked  at  him  a  little  curiously. 

"  Will  you  keep  your  promise?  "  she  asked  curi- 
ously. 

Cecil  hesitated,  but  only  for  a  minute. 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  "  I  will  even  do  that." 

She  withdrew  her  arm  firmly,  but  without  haste. 

"  Is  that  all  you  have  to  say?  "  she  asked. 

"  I  offer  you  my  promise,"  he  answered.  "  Isn't 
that  worth  something?  " 

"  Something,"  she  answered,  "  not  much.  I 
want  no  more  to  do  with  you,  Mr.  Cecil  de  la 
Borne.  Don't  think  you  can  make  terms  with  me 
for  you  can't.  I  only  hope  that  you  get  punished 
for  what  you  have  done." 

Cecil  raised  his  hand  as  though  about  to  strike 
her. 

"  You  little  cat!  "  he  exclaimed.  "  We'll  see  the 
thing  through,  then.  You  are  prisoners  here  just 
as  much  as  though  you  were  in  the  vault." 

Forrest,  who  had  spoken  very  little,  came  sud- 
denly forward. 

"  We  have  talked  too  much,"  he  said,  "  and 
wasted  too  much  time.  Let  us  have  the  issue  be- 
fore us  in  black  and  white.  Engleton,  are  you  well 
enough  to  understand  what  I  say?" 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES    351 

"  Perfectly,"  Engleton  answered.     "  Go  on." 

"  Will  you  sign  a  retraction  of  your  charges 
against  us,  and  pledge  your  word  of  honour  never 
to  repeat  them,  or  to  make  any  complaint,  formal 
or  otherwise,  as  to  your  detention  here." 

"  I'm  d — d  if  I  will!  "  Engleton  answered. 

"  Consider  what  your  refusal  means  first,"  For- 
rest said.    "  Open  the  passage  door,  Cecil." 

Cecil  pushed  it  back,  and  a  little  breath  of  the 
noxious  odour  stole  into  the  room. 

"  You  either  make  us  that  promise,  Engleton," 
he  said,  "  or  as  sure  as  I'm  standing  here,  we'll 
drag  you  both  down  that  passage,  right  to  the  end, 
and  throw  you  into  the  sea." 

"  And  hang  for  it  afterwards,"  Engleton  said, 
with  a  sneer. 

"  Not  we,"  Forrest  declared.  "  The  currents 
down  there  are  strange  ones,  and  it  would  be  many 
weeks  before  your  bodies  were  recovered.  Your 
character  in  London  is  pretty  well  known,  and  Kate 
here  has  been  seen  often  enough  on  her  way  up  to 
the  Hall.  People  will  soon  put  two  and  two  to- 
gether. There  are  a  dozen  places  in  the  Spinney 
where  one  could  slip  off  into  the  sea.  Besides  we 
shall  have  a  little  evidence  to  offer.  Oh,  there  is 
nothing  for  us  to  fear,  I  can  assure  you.  Now 
then.  I  can  see  it's  no  use  arguing  with  you  any 
longer." 


352     JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES 

"  One  moment,"  Kate  said.  "  What  about  the 
young  lady  I  left  outside?  " 

Cecil  turned  upon  her  swiftly. 

"  Don't  tell  lies,  Kate,"  he  said.  "  It's  a  poor 
sort  of  tale  that." 

"  At  any  rate  it's  no  lie,"  Kate  answered. 
"  When  I  came  to  your  front  door,  I  left  the  young 
lady  who  was  staying  here  only  a  few  weeks  ago, 
Miss  Le  Mesurier  you  called  her,  sitting  in  the 
barn  waiting." 

Cecil  laughed  scornfully. 

"  Did  she  drop  from  the  clouds?  "  he  asked. 

"  She  has  been  staying  at  the  farm,"  Kate  an- 
swered, '  for  days.  I  brought  her  with  me  to- 
night because  I  thought  that  she  might  know  some- 
thing about  Lord  Ronald's  disappearance.  She  is 
there  waiting.  If  I  do  not  return  by  daylight,  she 
will  go  to  the  police." 

"  I  think,"  Forrest  remarked  ironically,  "  that 
we  will  risk  the  young  lady  outside.  Your  story, 
my  dear,  is  ingenious,  but  scarcely  plausible.  If 
you  are  ready,  Cecil  —  " 

The  four  of  them  were  suddenly  stupefied  into  a 
dead  silence.  Their  eyes  were  riveted  upon  the 
door  which  led  to  the  underground  passage. 
Cecil's  face  was  almost  grotesque  with  the  terrible 
writing  of  fear.  Distinctly  they  could  all  hear 
footsteps  stumbling  along  the  uneven  way.     For- 


"  i'm  hanged  if  you  will,     was  the  sudden  reply. 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     353 

rest  was  first  to  recover  the  power  of  speech.  He 
called  out  to  Cecil  from  the  other  end  of  the  room. 

"  Shut  the  door !    Shut  it,  I  say !  " 

Cecil  took  a  quick  step  forward.  Before  he 
could  reach  the  door,  however,  the  girl  had  thrown 
her  arms  round  his  waist. 

"  You  shall  not  close  it,"  she  cried. 

"  Who  is  it  coming?  "  Cecil  cried  panting. 

"  God  knows!  "  she  answered.  "  They  say  the 
ghosts  walk  here." 

He  strove  to  loosen  himself  from  her  grasp,  but 
he  was  powerless.  Nevertheless  he  got  a  little 
nearer  to  the  door.  Forrest  came  swiftly  across 
the  room.  Engleton  struck  at  him  with  a  chair, 
but  the  blow  was  harmless. 

11  Stand  aside,  Cecil,"  Forrest  said.  "  I'll  close 
it." 

"  I'm  hanged  if  you  will,"  was  the  sudden  reply. 

Andrew  de  la  Borne  stepped  out  of  the  darkness 
and  stood  upright,  blinking  and  looking  around  in 
amazement. 


CHAPTER    XVII 

Jeanne  was  sitting  in  the  garden  of  the  Cayn- 
sard  farm.  The  excitement  of  the  last  twenty-four 
hours  had  left  her  languid.  For  once  she  lay  and 
watched  with  idle,  almost  with  indifferent  eyes,  the 
great  stretch  of  marshes  riven  with  the  incoming 
sea.  She  saw  the  fishing  boats  that  a  few  hours 
ago  were  dead  inert  things  upon  a  bed  of  mud, 
come  gliding  up  the  tortuous  water-ways.  On  the 
horizon  was  the  sea  bank,  with  its  long  line  of 
poles,  and  the  wires  connecting  the  coastguard 
stations.  They  stood  like  silent  sentinels,  clean 
and  distinct  against  the  empty  background.  Jeanne 
sighed  as  she  watched,  and  the  thoughts  came 
crowding  into  her  head.  It  was  a  restful  country 
this,  a  country  of  timeworn,  mouldering  grey 
churches,  and  of  immemorial  landmarks,  a  country 
where  everything  seemed  fixed  and  restful,  every- 
thing except  the  sea.  A  wave  of  self  pity  swept 
over  her.  After  all  she  had  lived  a  very  little  time 
to  know  so  much  unhappiness.  Worse  than  all, 
this  morning  she  was  filled  with  apprehensions. 
She  feared  something.    She  scarcely  knew  what,  or 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     355 

from  what  direction  it  might  come.  The  song  of 
the  larks  brought  her  no  comfort.  The  familiar 
and  beautiful  places  upon  which  she  looked  pleased 
her  no  more.  She  was  glad  when  Kate  Caynsard 
came  out  of  the  house  and  moved  slowly  towards 
her. 

Kate,  too,  showed  some  of  the  signs  of  the  recent 
excitement.  There  were  black  lines  under  her 
wonderful  eyes,  and  she  walked  hesitatingly,  with- 
out any  of  the  firm  splendid  grace  which  made  her 
movements  a  delight  to  watch.  Jeanne  was  afraid 
at  first  that  she  was  going  to  turn  away,  and  called 
to  her. 

"  Kate,"  she  exclaimed,  "  I  want  you.  Come 
here  and  talk  to  me." 

Kate  threw  herself  on  to  the  ground  by  Jeanne's 
side. 

"  All  the  talking  in  the  world,"  she  murmured, 
"  will  not  change  the  things  that  happened  last 
night.  They  will  not  even  smooth  away  the  evil 
memories." 

Jeanne  was  silent.  There  was  a  thought  in  her 
head  which  had  been  there  twisting  and  biting  its 
way  in  her  brain  through  the  silent  hours  of  the 
night  and  again  in  her  waking  moments.  She 
looked  down  towards  her  companion  stretched  at 
her  feet. 

"  Kate,"  she  said,  "  how  did  Mr.  Andrew  get 


356     JEANNE    OF  THE    MARSHES 

the  message  that  brought  him  to  the  Red  Hall  last 
night?" 

"  I  sent  it,"  Kate  answered.  "  I  sent  him  word 
that  there  were  things  going  on  at  the  Red  Hall 
which  I  could  not  understand.  I  told  him  that  I 
thought  it  would  be  well  if  he  came." 

"  You  knew  his  address?  "  Jeanne  asked,  a  little 
coldly. 

"  Yes!  "  Kate  answered. 

"You  have  written  him  before,  perhaps?" 
Jeanne  asked. 

"  Yes !  "  the  girl  answered  absently. 

There  was  a  short  silence.  Each  of  the  two 
seemed  occupied  in  her  own  thoughts.  When 
Jeanne  spoke  again  her  manner  was  changed.  The 
other  girl  noticed  it,  without  being  conscious  of 
the  reason. 

"  What  has  happened  this  morning,  do  you 
know?"  Jeanne  asked. 

"  They  are  all  at  the  Red  Hall  still,"  Kate  an- 
swered. "  Major  Forrest  tried  to  leave  this  morn- 
ing, but  Mr.  Andrew  would  not  let  him.  He  will 
not  let  either  of  them  go  away  until  Lord  Ronald 
is  well  enough  to  say  what  shall  be  done." 

"  I  wonder,"  Jeanne  said,  "  what  would  have 
happened  if  Mr.  Andrew  had  not  arrived  last 
night." 

"  God  knows!  "  Kate  answered.    "  He  is  a  wily 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     357 

brute,  the  man  Forrest.  How  was  it  that  you," 
she  added,  "  found  Mr.  Andrew?  " 

"  I  waited  on  the  mound  in  the  plantation," 
Jeanne  said,  "  with  my  ear  to  the  ground,  and  pres- 
ently I  heard  a  pistol  shot  and  then  a  scuffle,  and 
afterwards  silence.  I  was  frightened,  and  I  made 
my  way  to  the  road  and  hurried  along  toward  the 
village.  Then  I  saw  a  cart  and  I  stopped  it,  and 
inside  was  Mr.  Andrew,  on  his  way  from  Wells. 
I  told  him  something  of  what  was  happening,  and 
he  put  me  in  the  cart  and  sent  me  back.  Then  he 
went  on  to  the  Red  Hall." 

Kate  nodded  slowly. 

"  I  am  glad  that  I  sent  for  him,"  she  said.  "  I 
am  afraid  that  last  night  there  would  have  been 
bloodshed  if  he  had  not  come.  When  he  was  there 
there  was  not  one  who  dared  speak  or  move  any 
more,  except  as  he  directed.  He  is  very  strong, 
and  he  was  made,  I  think,  to  command  men." 

Jeanne's  lips  quivered  for  a  moment.  Her  eyes 
were  fixed  upon  the  distant  figure,  motionless  now, 
upon  the  raised  sandbanks.  Kate  had  turned  her 
head  toward  the  Red  Hall,  and  was  looking  at  one 
of  the  windows  there  as  though  her  eyes  would 
pierce  the  distance. 

"  Tell  me,"  Jeanne  asked.  "  I  have  seen  you 
once  with  Mr.  De  la  Borne.  He  is  a  great  friend 
of  yours?  " 


358     JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES 

"  He  was,"  the  girl  at  her  feet  whispered. 

Jeanne  found  herself  shaking.  She  stooped 
down. 

"  What  do  you  mean?  "  she  whispered. 

Kate  looked  up  from  the  ground.  She  raised 
herself  a  little.     For  a  moment  her  eyes  flashed. 

"  I  mean,"  she  said,  "  that  before  you  came  he 
was  more  than  a  friend.  It  was  you  who  drove 
his  thoughts  of  me  away.  You  with  your  great 
fortune,  and  your  childish,  foreign  ways.  Oh,  I 
talk  like  a  fool,  I  know !  "  she  said,  springing  up, 
"  but  I  am  not  a  fool.  I  do  not  hate  you.  I  have 
never  tried  to  do  you  any  harm.  It  is  not  your 
fault.  It  is  what  one  calls  fate.  Once,"  she  cried, 
"  we  Caynsards  lived  along  the  coast  there  in  a 
house  greater  than  the  Red  Hall,  and  our  lands 
were  richer.  Generation  after  generation  of  us 
have  been  pushed  by  fortune  downwards  and 
downwards.  The  men  lose  lands  and  money,  and 
the  women  disgrace  themselves,  or  creep  into  some 
corner  to  die  with  a  broken  heart.  I  talk  to  you 
as  one  of  the  villagers  here.  I  know  very  well  that 
I  speak  the  dialect  of  the  peasants,  and  that  my 
words  are  ill-chosen.  How  can  I  help  it?  We  are 
all  paupers,  every  one  of  us.  That  is  why  some- 
times I  feel  that  I  cannot  breathe.  That  is  why  I 
do  mad  things,  and  people  believe  that  I  am  indeed 
out  of  my  mind." 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     359 

She  sprang  to  her  feet.  Jeanne  tried  to  detain 
her. 

"  Let  me  talk  to  you  for  a  little  time,  Kate,"  she 
begged.  "  You  are  none  of  the  things  you  fancy, 
and  I  am  very  sure  that  Mr.  De  la  Borne  does  not 
care  for  me,  or  for  my  fortune.  Stay  just  for  a 
minute." 

But  Kate  was  already  gone.  Jeanne  could  see 
her  speeding  down  to  the  harbour,  and  a  few  min- 
utes later  gliding  down  the  creek  in  her  little  cat- 
boat. 

•  ••«••••• 

The  Count  de  Brensault  was  angry,  and  he  had 
not  sufficient  dignity  to  hide  it.  The  Princess,  in 
whose  boudoir  he  was,  regarded  him  from  her  sofa 
as  one  might  look  at  some  strange  animal. 

"  My  dear  Count,"  she  said,  "  it  is  not  reason- 
able that  you  should  be  angry  with  me.  Is  it  my 
fault  that  I  am  plagued  with  a  stepdaughter  of  so 
extraordinary  a  temperament?  She  will  return 
directly,  or  we  shall  find  her.  I  am  sure  of  it.  The 
wedding  can  be  arranged  then  as  speedily  as  you 
wish.  I  give  her  to  you.  I  consent  to  your  mar- 
riage.   What  could  woman  do  more?  " 

"  That  is  all  very  well,"  the  Count  said,  "  all 
very  well  indeed,  but  I  do  not  understand  how  it 
is  that  a  young  lady  could  disappear  from  her 
home  like  this,  and  that  her  guardian  should  know 


360     JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

nothing  about  it.  Where  could  she  have  gone  to? 
You  say  that  she  had  very  little  money.  Why 
should  she  go?    Who  was  unkind  to  her?  " 

"  All  that  I  did,"  the  Princess  answered,  "  was 
to  tell  her  that  she  must  marry  you." 

The  Count  twirled  his  moustache. 

"  Is  it  likely,"  he  demanded,  "  that  that  should 
drive  her  away  from  her  home?  The  idea  of  mar- 
riage, it  may  terrify  these  young  misses  at  the  first 
thought,  but  in  their  hearts  they  are  very,  very 
glad.  Ahl  "  he  added  softly,  "  I  have  had  some 
experience.    I  am  not  a  boy." 

The  Princess  looked  at  him.  Whatever  her 
thoughts  may  have  been,  her  face  remained  in- 
scrutable." 

"  No !  "  the  Count  continued,  drawing  his  chair 
a  little  nearer  to  the  Princess'  couch,  and  leaning 
towards  her,  "  I  do  not  believe  that  it  was  the  fear 
of  marriage  which  drove  little  Jeanne  to  disap- 
pear." 

"  Then  what  do  you  believe,  my  dear  Count?  " 
the  Princess  asked. 

His  eyes  seemed  to  narrow. 

"  Perhaps,"  he  said  significantly,  "  you  may  have 
thought  that  with  her  great  fortune,  and  seeing  me 
a  little  foolish  for  her,  that  you  had  not  driven 
quite  a  good  enough  bargain,  eh?  " 

"You  insulting  beast!  "  the  Princess  remarked. 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     361 

The  Count  grinned.  He  was  in  no  way  an- 
noyed. 

"  Ah !  "  he  said.  "  I  am  a  man  whom  it  is  not 
easy  to  deceive.  I  have  seen  very  much  of  the 
world,  and  I  know  the  ways  of  women.  A  woman 
who  wants  money,  my  dear  Princess,  is  very,  very 
clever,  and  not  too  honest." 

"  Your  experiences,  Count,"  the  Princess  said, 
"  may  be  interesting,  but  I  do  not  see  how  they 
concern  me." 

"  But  they  might  concern  you,"  the  Count  said, 
"if  I  were  to  speak  plainly;  if,  for  instance,  I 
were  to  double  that  little  amount  we  spoke  of." 

"  Do  you  mean  to  insinuate,"  the  Princess  re- 
marked, "that  I  know  where  Jeanne  is  now? 
That  it  is  I  who  have  put  her  out  of  the  way  for 
a  little  time,  in  order  to  make  a  better  bargain 
with  you?  " 

The  Count  bowed  his  head. 

"A  very  d  v-er  scheme,"  he  declared,  "a  very 
clever  scheme  indeed." 

The  Princess  drew  a  little  breath.  Then  she 
looked  at  the  Count  and  suddenly  laughed.  After 
all,  it  was  not  worth  while  to  be  angry  with  such 
a  creature.  Besides,  if  Jeanne  should  turn  up,  she 
might  as  well  have  the  extra  money. 

"  You  give  me  credit,  I  fear,"  she  said,  "  for 
being  a  cleverer  woman  than  I  am,  but  as  a  matter 


362     JEANNE   OF  THE   MARSHES 

of  curiosity,  supposing  I  am  able  to  hand  you  over 
Jeanne  very  shortly,  would  you  agree  to  double  the 
little  amount  we  have  spoken  of?  " 

"  I  will  double  it,"  the  Count  declared  solemnly. 
"  You  see  when  I  wish  for  a  thing  I  am  generous. 
I  can  only  hope,"  he  added,  with  a  peculiar  smile, 
'  Miss  Jeanne  may  soon  make  her  reappearance." 
There  was  a  knock  at  the  door.  The  Princess 
looked  up,  frowning.  Her  maid  put  her  head 
cautiously  in. 

"  I  am  sorry  to  disturb  you,  madam,  against 
your  orders,"  she  said,  "  but  Miss  Jeanne  has  just 
arrived." 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

The  Count  opened  his  mouth.  It  was  his  way 
of  expressing  supreme  astonishment.  The  Princess 
sat  bolt  upright  on  her  couch  and  gazed  at  Jeanne 
with  wide-open  and  dilated  eyes.  Curiously 
enough  it  was  the  Count  who  first  recovered  him- 
self. 

"  Is  it  a  game,  this?  "  he  asked  softly.  "  You 
press  the  button  and  the  little  girl  appears.  That 
means  that  I  increase  the  stakes  and  the  prize  pops 
up." 

The  Princess  rose  to  her  feet.  She  crossed  the 
room  to  meet  Jeanne  with  outstretched  arms. 

"  Shut  up,  you  fool!  "  she  said  to  the  Count  in 
passing.  "  Jeanne  my  child,"  she  added,  "  is  it 
really  you?  " 

Jeanne  accepted  the  proffered  embrace,  without 
enthusiasm.  She  recognized  the  Count,  however, 
with  a  little  wave  of  colour. 

"  Yes,"  she  said  quietly,  "  I  have  come  back. 
I  am  sorry  I  went  away.  It  was  a  mistake,  a  great 
mistake." 


364     JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES 

"  You  have  driven  us  nearly  wild  with  anxiety," 
the  Princess  declared.  "  Where  have  you  been 
to?" 

"  Yes!  "  the  Count  echoed,  fixing  his  eyes  upon 
her,  "  where  have  you  been  to?  " 

Jeanne  behaved  with  a  composure  which  aston- 
ished them  both.  She  calmly  unbuttoned  her 
gloves  and  seated  herself  in  the  easy-chair. 

"  I  have  been  to  Salthouse,"  she  said. 

"  What!  back  to  the  Red  Hall?  "  the  Princess 
exclaimed. 

Jeanne  shook  her  head. 

"  No!  "  she  said,  "  I  have  been  in  rooms  at  a 
farmhouse  there,  Caynsard's  farm.  I  went  away 
because  I  did  not  like  the  life  here,  and  because 
my  stepmother,"  she  continued,  turning  toward  the 
Count,  "  seemed  determined  that  I  should  marry 
you.  I  thought  that  I  would  go  away  into  the 
country,  somewhere  where  I  could  think  quietly. 
I  went  to  Salthouse  because  it  was  the  only  place 
I  knew." 

"  You  are  the  maddest  child !  "  the  Princess  ex- 
claimed. 

Jeanne  smiled,  a  little  wearily. 

11  If  I  have  been  mad,"  she  said,  "  I  have  come 
to  my  senses  again." 

The  Count  leaned  toward  her  eagerly. 

11  I  trust,"  he  said,  "  that  that  means  that  you 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     365 

are  ready  now  to  obey  your  stepmother,  and  to 

make  me  very,  very  happy." 

Jeanne  looked  at  him  deliberately. 

"  It  depends,"  she  said,  "  upon  circumstances." 

"Tell  me  what  they  are   quickly,"   the   Count 

declared.     "  I  am  impatient.     I  cannot  bear  that 

you  keep  me  waiting.     Let  me  know  of  my  happi- 


ness." 


The  Princess  was  suddenly  uneasy.  There  was 
one  weak  point  in  her  schemes,  a  weakness  of  her 
own  creating.  Ever  since  she  had  told  Jeanne  the 
truth  about  her  lack  of  fortune,  she  had  felt  that  it 
was  a  mistake.  Suppose  she  should  be  idiot  enough 
to  give  the  thing  away!  The  Princess  felt  her 
heart  beat  fast  at  the  mere  supposition.  There  was 
something  about  Jeanne's  delicate  oval  face,  her 
straight  mouth  and  level  eyebrows,  which  some- 
how suggested  that  gift  which  to  the  Princess  was 
so  incomprehensible  in  her  sex,  the  gift  of  honesty. 
Suppose  Jeanne  were  to  tell  the  Count  the  truth ! 

"  First  of  all,  then,"  Jeanne  said,  "  I  must  ask 
you  whether  my  stepmother  has  told  the  truth 
about  myself  and  my  fortune." 

The  Princess  knew  then  that  the  game  was  up. 
She  sank  back  upon  the  sofa,  and  at  that  moment 
she  would  have  declared  that  there  was  nothing 
In  the  world  more  terrible  than  an  ungrateful  and 
inconsiderate  child. 


366     JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES 

"  The  truth?  "  the  Count  remarked,  a  little  puz- 
zled. "  I  know  only  what  the  world  knows,  that 
you  are  the  daughter  of  Carl  le  Mesurier,  and  that 
he  left  you  the  residue  of  one  of  the  greatest  for- 
tunes in  Europe." 

Jeanne  drew  a  letter  from  her  pocket. 

"  The  Princess,"  she  remarked,  "  must  have 
forgotten  to  tell  you.  This  great  fortune  that  all 
the  world  has  spoken  of,  and  that  seems  to  have 
made  me  so  famous,  has  been  all  the  time  some- 
thing of  a  myth.  It  has  existed  only  in  the  imag- 
inations of  my  kind  friends.  A  few  days  ago  my 
stepmother  here  told  me  of  this.  I  wrote  at  once 
to  Monsieur  Laplanche,  my  trustee.  She  would 
not  let  me  send  the  letter.  When  I  was  at  Salt- 
house,  however,  I  wrote  again,  and  this  time  I  had 
a  reply.  It  is  here.  There  is  a  statement,"  she 
continued,  "  which  covers  many  pages,  and  which 
shows  exactly  how  my  father's  fortune  was  exag- 
gerated, how  securities  have  dwindled,  and  how 
my  stepmother's  insisting  upon  a  very  large  allow- 
ance during  my  school-days,  has  eaten  up  so  much 
of  the  residue.  There  is  left  to  me,  it  appears,  a 
sum  of  fourteen  thousand  pounds.  That  is  a  very 
small  fortune,  is  it  not?  "  she  asked  calmly. 

The  Count  was  gazing  at  her  as  one  might  gaze 
upon  a  tragedy. 

**  It  is  not  a  fortune !  "  he  exclaimed.     "  It  is 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     367 

not  even  a  dot!  It  is  nothing  at  all,  a  year's  in- 
come, a  trifle." 

"  Nevertheless,"  Jeanne  said  calmly,  "  it  is  all 
that  I  possess.  You  see,"  she  continued,  "  I  have 
come  back  to  my  stepmother  to  tell  her  that  if  I 
am  bound  by  law  to  do  as  she  wishes  until  I  am  of 
age,  I  will  be  dutiful  and  marry  the  man  whom 
she  chooses  for  me,  but  I  wish  to  tell  you  two 
things  quite  frankly.  The  first  you  have  just 
heard.  The  second  is  that  I  do  not  care  for  you  in 
the  least,  that  in  fact  I  rather  dislike  you." 

The  Princess  buried  her  head  in  her  hands.  She 
was  not  anxious  to  look  at  any  one  just  then,  or 
to  be  looked  at.  The  Count  rose  to  his  feet. 
There  were  drops  of  perspiration  upon  his  fore- 
head.   He  was  distracted. 

"  Is  this  true,  madam?"  he  asked  of  the  Prin- 
cess. 

"  It  is  true,"  she  admitted. 

He  leaned  towards  her. 

"What  about  my  three  thousand  pounds?"  he 
whispered.  "Who  will  pay  me  back  that?  It  is 
cheating.  That  money  has  been  gained  by  what 
you  call  false  pretences.  There  is  punishment  for 
that,  eh?" 

The  Princess  dabbed  at  her  eyes  with  a  little 
morsel  of  lace  handkerchief. 

"  One  must  live,"  she  murmured.     "  It  was  not 


368     JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES 

I  who  talked  about  Jeanne's  fortune.  It  was  all 
the  world  who  said  how  rich  she  was.  Why  should 
I  contradict  them  ?  I  wanted  a  place  once  more  in 
the  only  Society  in  Europe  which  counts,  English 
society.  There  was  only  one  way  and  I  took  it. 
So  long  as  people  believed  Jeanne  to  be  the  heiress 
of  a  great  fortune,  I  was  made  welcome  wherever 
I  chose  to  go.    That  is  the  truth,  my  dear  Count." 

"  It  is  all  very  well,"  the  Count  answered,  "  but 
the  money  I  have  advanced  you?  " 

"  You  took  your  own  risk,"  the  Princess  an- 
swered, coldly.  "  I  was  not  to  know  that  you  were 
expecting  to  repay  yourself  out  of  Jeanne's  fortune. 
It  is  not  too  late.     You  are  not  married  to  her." 

"  No,"  the  Count  said  slowly,  "  I  am  not  mar- 
ried to  her." 

The  Princess  watched  him  from  the  corners  of 
her  eyes.  He  was  evidently  very  much  distracted. 
He  walked  up  and  down  the  room.  Every  now 
and  then  he  glanced  at  Jeanne.  Jeanne  was  very 
pale,  but  she  wore  a  hat  with  a  small  green  quill 
which  he  had  once  admired.  Certainly  she  had  an 
air,  she  was  distinguished.  There  was  something 
vaguely  provocative  about  her,  a  charm  which  he 
could  not  help  but  feel.  He  stopped  short  in  the 
middle  of  his  perambulations.  It  was  the  moment 
of  his  life.    He  felt  himself  a  hero. 

"  Madam,"  he  said,  addressing  the  Princess,  "  I 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     369 

have  been  badly  treated.  There  is  no  one  who 
would  not  admit  that.  I  have  been  deceived  —  a 
man  less  kind  than  I  might  say  robbed.  No  mat- 
ter. I  forget  it  all.  I  forget  my  disappointment, 
I  forget  that  this  young  lady  whom  you  offer  me 
for  a  wife  has  a  dot  so  pitifully  small  that  it  counts 
for  nothing.  I  take  her.  I  accept  her.  Jeanne," 
he  added,  moving  towards  her,  "  you  hear?  It  is 
because  I  love  you  so  very,  very  much." 

Jeanne  shrank  back  in  her  chair. 

"  You  mean,"  she  cried,  "  that  you  are  willing 
to  take  me  now  that  you  know  everything,  now 
that  you  know  I  have  so  little  money?  You  mean 
that  you  want  to  marry  me  still?  " 

The  Count  assented  graciously.  Never  in  the 
course  of  his  whole  life,  had  he  admired  himself 
so  much. 

"  I  forget  everything,"  he  declared,  with  a  little 
wave  of  the  hand,  "  except  that  I  love  you,  and 
that  you  are  the  one  woman  in  the  world  whom  I 
wish  to  make  the  Comtesse  de  Brensault.  Mad- 
emoiselle permits  me?  " 

He  stooped  and  raised  her  cold  hand  to  his  lips. 
Jeanne  looked  at  him  with  the  fascinated  despair 
of  some  stricken  animal.  The  Princess  rose  to  her 
feet.  It  was  wonderful,  this  —  a  triumph  beyond 
all  thought. 

"  Jeanne,  my  child,"  she  said,  "  you  are  the  most 


370    JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

fortunate  girl  I  know,  to  have  inspired  a  devotion 
so  great.  Count,"  she  added,  "  you  are  wonderful. 
tYou  deserve  all  the  happiness  which  I  am  sure  will 
come  to  you." 

The  Count  looked  as  though  he  were  perfectly 
convinced  of  it.  All  the  same  he  whispered  in  her 
ear  a  moment  later  — 

"  You  must  pay  me  back  that  three  thousand 
pounds ! " 


CHAPTER   XIX 

For  the  Princess  it  was  a  day  full  of  excite- 
ments. The  Count  had  only  just  reluctantly  with- 
drawn, and  Jeanne  had  gone  to  her  room  under  the 
plea  of  fatigue,  when  Forrest  was  shown  in.  She 
started  at  the  look  in  his  drawn  face. 

"  Nigel,"  she  exclaimed  hastily,  "  is  everything 
all  right?" 

He  threw  himself  into  a  chair. 

"  Everything,"  he  answered,  "  is  all  wrong. 
Everything  is  over." 

The  Princess  saw  then  that  he  had  aged  during 
the  last  few  days,  that  this  man  whose  care  of  him- 
self had  kept  him  comparatively  youthful  looking, 
notwithstanding  the  daily  routine  of  an  unwhole- 
some life,  was  showing  signs  at  last  of  breaking 
down.  There  were  lines  about  his  eyes,  little  baggy 
places  underneath.  He  dragged  his  feet  across  the 
carpet  as  though  he  were  tired.  The  Princess 
pushed  up  an  easy-chair  and  went  herself  to  the 
sideboard. 

"  Give  me  a  little  brandy,"  he  said,  "  or  rather 
a  good  deal  of  brandy.     I  need  it." 


372     JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES 

The  Princess  felt  her  own  hand  shake.  She 
brought  him  a  tumbler  and  sat  down  by  his 
side. 

"  You  had  to  kill  him?  "  she  asked,  in  a  whisper. 
"Is  it  that?" 

Forrest  set  down  his  glass  —  empty. 

"No!"  he  answered.  "We  were  going  to, 
when  a  mad  woman  who  lives  there  got  into  the 
place  and  found  us  out.  We  had  them  safe,  the 
two  of  them,  when  the  worst  thing  happened  which 
could  have  befallen  us.  Andrew  de  la  Borne  broke 
in  upon  us." 

The  Princess  listened  with  set  face. 

"  Go  on,"  she  said.     "  What  happened?  " 

"  The  game  was  up  so  far  as  we  were  con- 
cerned," he  answered.  "  Cecil  crumpled  up  before 
his  brother,  and  gave  the  whole  show  away.  There 
was  nothing  left  for  me  to  do  but  to  wait  and  hear 
what  they  had  to  say,  before  I  decided  whether 
or  no  to  make  my  graceful  exit  from  the  stage." 

"  Go  on,"  she  commanded.  "  What  happened 
exactly?  " 

"  We  were  kept  there,"  he  continued,  "  until  this 
morning,  waiting  until  Engleton  was  well  enough 
to  make  up  his  mind  what  to  do.  The  end  is  sim- 
ple enough.  Considering  that  but  for  that  girl's 
intervention  Engleton  would  have  been  in  the  sea 
by  now,  and  he  knows  it,  I  suppose  it  might  have 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     373 

been  worse.  I  have  signed  a  paper  undertaking 
to  leave  England  within  forty-eight  hours,  and 
never  to  show  myself  in  this  country  again.  Fur- 
ther, I  am  not  to  play  cards  at  any  time  with  any 
Englishman." 

"  Is  that  all?  "  the  Princess  asked. 

"Yes!"  Forrest  answered.  "I  suppose  you 
would  say  that  they  have  let  me  off  lightly.  I 
wish  I  could  feel  so.  If  ever  a  man  was  sick  of 
those  dirty  disreputable  foreign  places,  where  one 
holds  on  to  life  and  respectability  only  with  the 
tips  of  one's  fingernails,  I  am.  I  think  I  shall 
chuck  it,  Ena.  I  am  tired  of  those  foreign  crowds, 
suspicious,  semi-disreputable.  There's  something 
wrong  with  every  one  of  them.  Even  the  few 
decent  ones  you  know  very  well  speak  to  you  be- 
cause you  are  in  a  foreign  country,  and  would  cut 
you  in  Pall  Mall." 

"  It  isn't  so  bad  as  that,"  the  Princess  said 
calmly.  "There  are  some  of  the  places  worth 
living  in.  You  must  live  a  quieter  life,  spend  less, 
and  find  distractions.  You  used  to  be  so  fond  of 
shooting  and  golf." 

He  laughed  hardly. 

"  How  am  I  to  live,"  he  demanded,  "  away  from 
the  card-tables?  What  do  you  suppose  my  income 
is?  A  blank!  It  is  worse  than  a  blank,  for  I  owe 
bills  which  I  shall  never  pay.     How  am  I  going 


374     JEANNE   OF   THE    MARSHES 

to  live  from  day  to  day  unless  I  go  on  the  same 
infernal  treadmill.  I  am  an  adventurer,  I  know," 
he  went  on,  "  but  what  is  one  to  do  who  has  the 
tastes  and  education  of  a  gentleman,  and  not  even 
money  enough  to  buy  a  farm  and  work  with  one's 
hands  for  a  living?  " 

The  Princess  moved  to  the  window  and  back 
again. 

"  I,  too,  Nigel,"  she  said,  "  have  had  shocks. 
Jeanne  has  come  back.  She  has  been  at  Salthouse 
all  the  time." 

"  It  was  probably  she,  then,  who  sent  for  De  la 
Borne,"  Forrest  said  wearily. 

"  Perhaps  so,"  the  Princess  assented,  "  but  listen 
to  this.  It  will  surprise  you.  She  came  back  and 
she  told  De  Brensault  in  this  room  only  a  short 
while  ago  that  her  supposed  fortune  was  a  myth. 
De  Brensault  took  it  like  a  lamb.  He  wants  to 
marry  her  still." 

Forrest  looked  up  in  amazement. 

"  And  will  he  ?"  he  asked. 

"  Oh,  I  do  not  know !  "  the  Princess  answered. 
"  Nigel,  I  am  sick  of  life  myself.  There  are  times 
when  everything  you  have  been  trying  for  seems 
not  worth  while,  when  even  one's  fundamental 
ideas  come  tottering  down.  Just  now  I  feel  as 
though  every  stone  in  the  foundation  of  what  has 
seemed  to  me  to  mean  life,  is  rotten  and  insecure. 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     375 

I  am  tired  of  it.  Shall  I  tell  you  what  I  feel  like 
doing?" 

"  Yes !  "  he  answered. 

"  I  have  a  little  house  in  Silesia,  where  I  am  still 
a  great  lady,  half-a-dozen  servants,  perhaps,  farms 
which  bring  in  a  trifle  of  money.  I  think  I  will 
go  and  live  there.  I  think  I  will  get  up  in  the 
mornings  as  Jeanne  does,  and  try  to  love  my  moun- 
tains, and  go  about  amongst  my  people,  and  try 
to  spell  life  with  different  letters.  Come  with  me, 
Nigel.  There  is  shooting  and  fishing  there,  and 
horses  wild  enough  for  even  you  to  find  pleasure  in 
riding.  We  have  tried  many  things  in  life.  Let 
us  make  one  last  throw,  and  try  the  land  of  Ar- 
cady." 

He  looked  at  her,  at  first  in  amazement.  After- 
wards some  change  seemed  to  come  into  his  face, 
called  there,  perhaps,  by  what  he  saw  in  hers. 

"  Ena,"  he  said,  "  you  mean  it?  " 

"  Absolutely,"  she  answered.  "  Fortunately  we 
are  both  free,  and  we  can  set  our  peasants  an  abso- 
lutely respectable  example.  You  shall  be  farmer 
and  I  will  be  housewife.  Nigel,  it  is  an  inspira- 
tion." 

He  bent  over  her  fingers. 

1  I  wonder,"  he  murmured,  "  if  there  is  good 
enough  left  in  me  to  make  it  worth  your  while." 


376     JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES 

Late  that  afternoon  another  caller  thundered  at 
the  door  of  the  house  in  Berkeley  Square.  The 
Duke  of  Westerham  desired  to  see  Miss  Le  Me- 
surier.  The  butler  was  respectful  but  doubtful. 
Miss  Le  Mesurier  had  just  arrived  from  a  journey 
and  was  lying  down.  The  Duke,  however,  was 
insistent.  He  waited  twenty  minutes  in  a  small 
back  morning-room  and  presently  Jeanne  came  in 
to  him. 

He  held  out  his  hands. 

"  Little  girl,"   he   said,   "  you  know  what  you 
promised.     I  am  afraid  that  you  have  forgotten." 
She  smiled  pitifully. 

"  No,"  she  said,  "  I  have  not  forgotten.  I  went 
away  alone  because  I  had  to  go,  because  I  wanted 
to  be  quite  alone  and  quite  quiet.  Now  I  have 
come  home,  and  there  is  no  one  who  can  help  me 
at  all." 

"  Rubbish!  "  he  answered.     "There  was  never 
trouble  in  the  world  where  a  friend  couldn't  help. 
What  is  it  now?  " 
She  shook  her  head. 

"  I  cannot  tell  you,"  she  said,  "  only  I  am  going 
to  marry  the  Count  de  Brensault." 

"  I'm  hanged  if  you  are!  "  the  Duke  declared 
vigorously.  "  Look  here,  Miss  Jeanne.  This  is 
your  stepmother's  doing.  I  know  all  about  it. 
Don't  you  believe   that   in   this   country  you   are 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     377 

obliged  to  marry  any  one  whom  you  don't  want 
to." 

"  But  I  do  want  to,"  Jeanne  answered,  "  or 
rather  I  don't  mind  whom  I  do  marry,  or  whether 
I  marry  any  one  or  no  one." 

The  Duke  was  grave. 

"  I  thought,"  he  said,  "  that  my  friend  Andrew 
had  a  chance." 

Her  face  was  suddenly  burning. 

"  Mr.  Andrew,"  she  said,  "  does  not  want  me; 
I  mean  that  it  is  impossible.  Oh,  if  you  please," 
she  added,  bursting  into  tears,  "  won't  you  let  me 
alone?  I  am  going  to  marry  the  Count  de  Bren- 
sault.  I  have  quite  made  up  my  mind.  Perhaps 
you  have  not  heard  that  it  is  all  a  mistake  about 
my  having  a  great  fortune.  The  Count  de  Bren- 
sault  is  very  kind,  and  he  is  going  to  marry  me 
although  I  have  no  money." 

The  Duke  stared  at  her  for  several  moments. 
Then  he  rang  the  bell. 

11  Will  you  tell  your  mistress,"  he  said  to  the 
servant,  "  that  the  Duke  of  Westerham  would  be 
exceedingly  obliged  if  she  would  spare  him  five 
minutes  here  and  now." 

The  man  bowed  and  withdrew.  The  Princess 
came  almost  at  once. 

"  Madam,"  the  Duke  said,  "  I  trust  that  you 
will  forgive  my  sending  for  you,  but  I  am  very 


378     JEANNE   OF  THE    MARSHES 

much  interested  in  the  happiness  of  our  little  friend 
Miss  Jeanne  here.  She  tells  me  that  she  is  going 
to  marry  the  Count  de  Brensault,  that  she  has  lost 
her  fortune  and  she  is  evidently  very  unhappy. 
Will  you  forgive  me  if  I  ask  you  whether  this 
marriage  is  being  forced  upon  her?  " 

The  Princess  hesitated. 

"  No,"  she  said,  "  it  is  not  that.  Jeanne  told 
him  of  her  loss  of  fortune.  She  told  him,  too, 
without  any  prompting  from  me,  that  she  would 
marry  him  if  he  still  wished  it.  That  is  all  that 
I  know." 

The  Duke  bowed.  He  moved  a  few  steps  across 
towards  the  Princess. 

"  Princess,"  he  said,  "  will  you  make  a  friend? 
Will  you  let  me  take  your  little  girl  to  my  sister's 
for  say  one  week?  You  shall  have  her  back  then, 
and  you  shall  do  as  you  will  with  her." 

"  Willingly,"  the  Princess  answered.  "  I  am 
only  anxious  that  she  should  be  happy." 

The  Duke  marvelled  then  at  the  sincerity  in  her 
tone.  Nevertheless,  for  fear  she  should  change 
her  mind,  he  hurried  Jeanne  out  of  the  house  into 
his  brougham. 


CHAPTER   XX 

"  So  this,"  the  Duke  said,  "  is  your  wonderful 
land." 

"  Is  there  anything  like  it  in  the  world?" 
Jeanne  asked  as  she  stood  bareheaded  on  the  grass- 
banked  dyke  with  her  face  turned  seaward. 

Above  their  heads  the  larks  were  singing.  To 
their  right  stretched  the  marshes  and  pasture  land, 
as  yet  untouched  by  the  sea,  glorious  with  streaks 
of  colour,  fragrant  with  the  perfume  of  wild  lav- 
ender and  mosses.  To  their  left,  through  the  open- 
ing in  the  sandbanks,  came  streaming  the  full  tide, 
rushing  up  into  the  land,  making  silver  water-ways 
of  muddy  places,  bringing  with  it  all  the  salt  and 
freshness  and  joy  of  the  sea.  Over  their  heads  the 
seagulls  cried.  Far  away  a  heron  lifted  its  head 
from  a  tuft  of  weeds,  and  sent  his  strange  call 
travelling  across  the  level  distance. 

"  Oh,  it  is  beautiful  to  be  here  again !  "  Jeanne 
said.  "  Even  though  it  hurts,"  she  added,  in  a 
lower  tone,  "  it  is  beautiful." 

A  little  boat  came  darting  down  the  shallows. 
Kate   Caynsard   stood   up    and   waved   her   hand. 


380    JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

Jeanne  waved  back.  A  sudden  flush  of  colour 
stained  her  cheeks.  Her  first  impulse  seemed  to 
be  to  turn  away.  She  conquered  it,  however,  and 
beckoned  to  the  girl,  who  ran  her  boat  close  to 
them. 

"  My  last  sail,"  the  girl  cried,  as  she  stepped  to 
land.  "  I  am  saying  good-bye  to  all  these  wonder- 
ful places,  Miss  Le  Mesurier,"  she  added.  "  To- 
morrow we  are  going  to  sail  for  Canada." 

Jeanne  looked  at  her  in  amazement. 

"  You  are  going  to  Canada?  "  she  asked. 

The  girl,  too,  was  surprised. 

"  Have  you  not  heard?  "  she  said.  "  I  thought, 
perhaps,  that  Mr.  Andrew  might  have  told  you. 
Cecil  and  I  are  sailing  to-morrow,  directly  after 
we  are  married.    He  has  bought  a  farm  out  there.', 

Jeanne  felt  for  a  moment  that  the  beautiful 
world  was  spinning  round  her.  She  clutched  at 
the  Duke's  arm. 

"You  are  going  to  Canada  with  Cecil?"  she 
exclaimed. 

"  Of  course,"  Kate  answered,  a  little  shyly.  "  I 
thought,  in  fact  I  know  that  I  told  you  about  him. 
Won't  you  wish  me  joy?  "  she  added,  holding  out 
her  hand  a  little  timidly. 

Jeanne  grasped  it.  To  the  girl's  surprise 
Jeanne's  eyes  were  full  of  tears. 

"  Oh,  I  am  so  foolish !  "  she  declared.    "  I  have 


JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES     381 

been  so  mad.     I  thought  —    You  said  Mr.  De  la 
Borne." 

"  Hang  it  all !  "  the  Duke  exclaimed.  "  I  be- 
lieve you  thought  that  she  meant  our  friend  An- 
drew. Don't  you  know  that  all  the  world  here 
half  the  time  calls  Cecil,  Mr.  De  la  Borne,  and 
Andrew,  Mr.  Andrew?  " 

Kate  looked  behind  her,  and  touched  the  Duke 
on  the  sleeve. 

"  Wouldn't  you  like,  sir,"  she  asked,  a  little 
timidly,  "  to  come  for  a  sail  with  me?  " 

The  Duke  saw  what  she  saw,  and  notwithstand- 
ing his  years  and  his  weight,  he  clambered  into  the 
little  boat.  Jeanne  turned  round  and  walked 
slowly  towards  the  man  who  came  so  swiftly  along 
the  dyke.  It  was  a  dream !  She  felt  that  it  must 
be  a  dream ! 

Andrew,  with  his  gun  over  his  shoulder,  his 
rough  tweed  clothes  splashed  with  black  mud, 
gazed  at  her  as  though  she  were  an  apparition. 
Then  he  saw  something  in  her  face  which  told  him 
so  much  that  he  forgot  the  little  catboat,  barely 
out  of  sight,  he  forgot  the  little  red-roofed  village 
barely  a  mile  away,  he  forgot  the  lone  figures  of 
the  shrimpers,  standing  like  sentinels  far  away  in 
the  salt  pools.  He  took  Jeanne  into  his  arms,  and 
he  felt  her  lips  melt  upon  his. 

The  Duke  was  right,  then,"  he  murmured  a 


<( 


382    JEANNE    OF   THE    MARSHES 

moment  later,  as  he  stood  back  for  a  moment,  his 
face  transformed  with  the  new  thing  that  had  come 
into  his  life. 

"  Dear  man !  "  Jeanne  murmured. 

They  watched  the  boat  gliding  away  in  the  dis- 
tance. 

"  I  believe,"  he  declared,  "  that  they  went  away 
on  purpose." 

She  laughed  as  they  scrambled  down  on  to  the 
marsh,  and  turned  toward  the  place  where  he  had 
first  met  her. 

"  I  believe  they  did,"  she  answered. 


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